Which to use
“sortaient” and “soutient” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,686
- “sortaient” frequency rank
- #3,171
- “soutient” frequency rank
- 22857
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sortaient | soutient |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de sortir. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de soutenir. |
Where the eye mixes sortaient and soutient
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses sortaient with soutient
A purely visual mix-up. sortaient (\sɔʁ.tɛ\) and soutient (\su.tjɛ̃\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22857, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sortaient is recorded at frequency rank #19,686, classified as averb, pronounced \sɔʁ.tɛ\. soutient is at rank #3,171, tagged as averb, pronounced \su.tjɛ̃\.
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 22857, this pair ranks #355,758 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sortaient vs soutient
Shared letters: einost. Private to "sortaient": ar. Private to "soutient": u.
"sortaient" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVVCC · "soutient" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sortaient" for "soutient" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "sortaient" or "soutient" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "sortaient" and "soutient" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sortaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "soutient" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #355,758 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sortaient" and "soutient" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sortaient vs sortirent". 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 #355,758 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.