SionvssoyConfusable pair

Quick tell: Sion is a name, soy is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Sion” is a name and “soy” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,741
“Sion” frequency rank
#40,027
“soy” frequency rank
56768
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Sion soy
Definition Colline de Jérusalem et montagne sacrée, considérée comme l'emplacement historique du palais du roi David et du temple de Salomon. Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de ser (« être »).

Where the eye mixes Sion and soy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Sion runs 4 letters (CVVC) against soy's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Sion
3 ch
soy

Visual trap between Sion and soy

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Sion is \sjɔ̃\ while soy is \ˈsoi̯\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56768, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Sion is recorded at frequency rank #16,741, classified as aname, pronounced \sjɔ̃\. soy is at rank #40,027, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈsoi̯\.

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 56768, this pair ranks #119,044 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Sion vs soy

Shared letters: os. Private to "Sion": in. Private to "soy": y.

"Sion" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "soy" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Sion ← ison · ssion

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Sion" and "soy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Sion" is a name and "soy" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Sion" vs "soy" - which ranks higher?
"Sion" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,741 in our French list, against #40,027 for "soy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Sion" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "soy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #119,044 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Sion" and "soy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soy vs suu". 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

Confusion rank #119,044 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list