sontvssoxWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sont is a verb, sox is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sont” is a verb and “sox” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47
“sont” frequency rank
#23,694
“sox” frequency rank
23741
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sont sox
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de être. Pluriel de sock.

Where the eye mixes sont and sox

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
sont
3 ch
sox

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sont is \sɔ̃\ while sox is \ˈsɑks\. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23741, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sont is recorded at frequency rank #47, classified as averb, pronounced \sɔ̃\. sox is at rank #23,694, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈsɑks\.

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 23741, this pair ranks #350,730 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sont vs sox

Shared letters: os. Private to "sont": nt. Private to "sox": x.

"sont" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "sox" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sontosnt · snot · sonnt · sontt · sotn · ssont

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sont" and "sox" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sont" is a verb and "sox" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sont" or "sox"?
"sont" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #47 in our French list, against #23,694 for "sox". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "sont" and "sox". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sont" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sox" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #350,730 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sont" and "sox" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sox vs suu". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list