Which to use
“slow” is a noun and “son” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,855
- “slow” frequency rank
- #42
- “son” frequency rank
- 20897
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | slow | son |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Danse lente que les partenaires dansent enlacés. | Troisième personne du sujet, objet masculin singulier. |
Where the eye mixes slow and son
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between slow and son
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: slow is \slo\ while son is \sɔ̃\. 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 (noun vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20897, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
slow is recorded at frequency rank #20,855, classified as anoun, pronounced \slo\. son is at rank #42, tagged as adet, pronounced \sɔ̃\.
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 20897, this pair ranks #365,924 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of slow vs son
Shared letters: os. Private to "slow": lw. Private to "son": n.
"slow" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "son" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- slow ← lsow · sllow · sloww · slwo · solw · sslow
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "slow" for "son" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "slow" or "son" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "slow" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "son" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #365,924 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "slow" and "son" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seok vs slow". 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 #365,924 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.