Which to use
“sobre” and “sombres” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,781
- “sobre” frequency rank
- #7,378
- “sombres” frequency rank
- 16159
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sobre | sombres |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est tempérant dans le boire et dans le manger. | Pluriel de sombre. |
Where the eye mixes sobre and sombres
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. sobre runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against sombres's 7 (CVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between sobre and sombres
A purely visual mix-up. sobre (\sɔbʁ\) and sombres (\sɔ̃bʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16159, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sobre is recorded at frequency rank #8,781, classified as anadj, pronounced \sɔbʁ\. sombres is at rank #7,378, tagged as anadj, pronounced \sɔ̃bʁ\.
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 16159, this pair ranks #389,104 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sobre vs sombres
Shared letters: beors. Private to "sobre": -. Private to "sombres": m.
"sobre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "sombres" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sobre" and "sombres" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "sobre" or "sombres" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "sobre" and "sombres" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sobre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sombres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #389,104 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sobre" and "sombres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sobre vs sofres". 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 #389,104 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.