Which to use
“soir” and “song” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #268
- “soir” frequency rank
- #13,268
- “song” frequency rank
- 13536
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | soir | song |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Déclin du jour, dernières heures de la journée. | Chant des oiseaux. |
Where the eye mixes soir and song
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. soir (CVVC) and song (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses soir with song
A purely visual mix-up. soir (\swaʁ\) and song (\ˈsɔŋ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13536, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
soir is recorded at frequency rank #268, classified as anoun, pronounced \swaʁ\. song is at rank #13,268, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈsɔŋ\.
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 13536, this pair ranks #400,593 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of soir vs song
Shared letters: os. Private to "soir": ir. Private to "song": gn.
"soir" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "song" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "soir" for "song" ever safe?
Frequency check: "soir" vs "song" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "soir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "song" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #400,593 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "soir" and "song" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "song vs soya". 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 #400,593 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.