songervssoûlerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#16,744
“songer” frequency rank
#39,547
“soûler” frequency rank
56291
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature songer soûler
Definition Voir en songe, rêver. Rassasier jusqu’à l’excès, gorger de vin, de viande.

Where the eye mixes songer and soûler

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. songer (CVCCVC) and soûler (CVVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
songer
6 ch
soûler

Look-alike desk: songer vs soûler

A purely visual mix-up. songer (\sɔ̃.ʒe\) and soûler (\su.le\) 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 56291, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

songer is recorded at frequency rank #16,744, classified as averb, pronounced \sɔ̃.ʒe\. soûler is at rank #39,547, tagged as averb, pronounced \su.le\.

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 56291, this pair ranks #122,014 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of songer vs soûler

Shared letters: eors. Private to "songer": gn. Private to "soûler": lû.

"songer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "soûler" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • songer ← osnger · snoger · sogner · sonegr · songerr · songger · songre · sonnger

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "songer" and "soûler" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\sɔ̃.ʒe\ versus \su.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "songer" or "soûler"?
"songer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,744 in our French list, against #39,547 for "soûler". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "songer" and "soûler" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "songer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "soûler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #122,014 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "songer" and "soûler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soûler vs souleva". 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 #122,014 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