sortaisvssortirConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#20,857
“sortais” frequency rank
#534
“sortir” frequency rank
21391
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sortais sortir
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de sortir. Passer du dedans vers le dehors.

Where the eye mixes sortais and sortir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
sortais
6 ch
sortir

Look-alike desk: sortais vs sortir

A purely visual mix-up. sortais (\sɔʁ.tɛ\) and sortir (\sɔʁ.tiʁ\) 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 21391, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sortais is recorded at frequency rank #20,857, classified as averb, pronounced \sɔʁ.tɛ\. sortir is at rank #534, tagged as averb, pronounced \sɔʁ.tiʁ\.

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 21391, this pair ranks #363,391 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sortais vs sortir

Shared letters: iorst. Private to "sortais": a. Private to "sortir": -.

"sortais" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "sortir" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sortaisosrtais · soratis · sorrtais · sortaiss · sortasi · sortias · sorttais · sotrais
  • sortirosrtir · soritr · sorrtir · sortirr · sortri · sorttir · sotrir · srotir

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sortais" for "sortir" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\sɔʁ.tɛ\ versus \sɔʁ.tiʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "sortais" vs "sortir" - which ranks higher?
"sortir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #534 in our French list, against #20,857 for "sortais". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sortais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sortir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #363,391 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sortais" and "sortir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sortais vs sortirais". 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 #363,391 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