Which to use
“sois” is a verb and “son” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,787
- “sois” frequency rank
- #42
- “son” frequency rank
- 1829
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sois | son |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de être. | Troisième personne du sujet, objet masculin singulier. |
Where the eye mixes sois and son
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between sois and son
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sois is \swa\ 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 (verb vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1829, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sois is recorded at frequency rank #1,787, classified as averb, pronounced \swa\. 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 1829, this pair ranks #437,306 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sois vs son
Shared letters: os. Private to "sois": i. Private to "son": n.
"sois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "son" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- sois ← osis · sios · soiss · sosi · ssois
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "sois" and "son" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "sois" or "son" show up more?
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 "sois" 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 #437,306 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sois" and "son" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sois 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
Confusion rank #437,306 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.