sondagevssoudageConfusable pair

Which to use

“sondage” and “soudage” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,899
“sondage” frequency rank
#40,508
“soudage” frequency rank
43407
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sondage soudage
Definition Action de sonder un lieu, d'en mesurer la profondeur, la nature ou la composition. Action de souder.

Where the eye mixes sondage and soudage

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. sondage (CVCCVCV) and soudage (CVVCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
sondage
7 ch
soudage

Visual trap between sondage and soudage

A purely visual mix-up. sondage (\sɔ̃.daʒ\) and soudage (\su.daʒ\) 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 a single letter - n in “sondage” becomes u in “soudage”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43407, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sondage is recorded at frequency rank #2,899, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɔ̃.daʒ\. soudage is at rank #40,508, tagged as anoun, pronounced \su.daʒ\.

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 43407, this pair ranks #218,296 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sondage vs soudage

Shared letters: adegos. Private to "sondage": n. Private to "soudage": u.

"sondage" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "soudage" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sondage ← osndage · snodage · sodnage · sonadge · sondaeg · sondagge · sonddage · sondgae
  • soudage ← osudage · soduage · souadge · soudaeg · soudagge · souddage · soudgae · ssoudage

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sondage" and "soudage" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\sɔ̃.daʒ\ versus \su.daʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "sondage" vs "soudage" - which ranks higher?
"sondage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,899 in our French list, against #40,508 for "soudage". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sondage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "soudage" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #218,296 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sondage" and "soudage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soudage vs soutane". 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 #218,296 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