Which to use
“sonde” and “soupe” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,902
- “sonde” frequency rank
- #4,893
- “soupe” frequency rank
- 12795
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sonde | soupe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Instrument qui sert à sonder. — Il se dit particulièrement d’un plomb attaché à une corde et dont on use pour connaître la profondeur de la mer, d’une rivière, la nature du fond, etc. | Pain que l’on trempe dans le potage. |
Where the eye mixes sonde and soupe
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. sonde (CVCCV) and soupe (CVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses sonde with soupe
A purely visual mix-up. sonde (\sɔ̃d\) and soupe (\sup\) 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 12795, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sonde is recorded at frequency rank #7,902, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɔ̃d\. soupe is at rank #4,893, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sup\.
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 12795, this pair ranks #403,720 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sonde vs soupe
Shared letters: eos. Private to "sonde": dn. Private to "soupe": pu.
"sonde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "soupe" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sonde" and "soupe" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "sonde" or "soupe" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "sonde" and "soupe" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sonde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "soupe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #403,720 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sonde" and "soupe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sind vs sonde". 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 #403,720 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.