Which to use
“sonder” is a verb and “sondés” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,779
- “sonder” frequency rank
- #28,354
- “sondés” frequency rank
- 53133
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sonder | sondés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Reconnaître, par des instruments idoines, la profondeur de la mer, d’une rivière, la nature du fond, etc. | Pluriel de sondé. |
Same sound, different letters: sonder vs sondés
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - sonder and sondés
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: sonder and sondés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \sɔ̃.de\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53133, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sonder is recorded at frequency rank #24,779, classified as averb, pronounced \sɔ̃.de\. sondés is at rank #28,354, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɔ̃.de\.
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 53133, this pair ranks #142,831 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sonder vs sondés
Shared letters: dnos. Private to "sonder": er. Private to "sondés": é.
"sonder" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "sondés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- sonder ← osnder · snoder · sodner · sondder · sonderr · sondre · sonedr · sonnder
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sonder" for "sondés" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "sonder" or "sondés" show up more?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "sonder" / "sondés". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "sonder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sondés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #142,831 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sonder" and "sondés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sofres vs sondés". 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 #142,831 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.