sivssoliWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: si is a conjunction, soli is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“si” is a conjunction and “soli” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46
“si” frequency rank
#48,798
“soli” frequency rank
48844
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature si soli
Definition Dans le cas où, à condition que, supposé que. Note d’usage : Conjonction qui introduit une condition (suivie d’une conséquence) ou une supposition qui peut être supprimée en utilisant un conditionnel. Sous le faîtage, espace servant à engranger le foin (fenière) et où l'on peut aussi coucher, en y accédant par une échelle extérieure.

Where the eye mixes si and soli

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

2 ch
si
4 ch
soli

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: si is \si\ while soli is \sɔ.lo\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (conjunction vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48844, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

si is recorded at frequency rank #46, classified as aconj, pronounced \si\. soli is at rank #48,798, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɔ.lo\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 48844, this pair ranks #175,601 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of si vs soli

Shared letters: is. Private to "si": -. Private to "soli": lo.

"si" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "soli" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • soliosli · sloi · soil · solli · ssoli

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "si" and "soli" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "si" is a conjunction and "soli" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "si" or "soli"?
"si" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #46 in our French list, against #48,798 for "soli". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "si" and "soli". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "si" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "soli" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #175,601 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "si" and "soli" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soli vs spi". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list