sortievssortirWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#623
“sortie” frequency rank
#534
“sortir” frequency rank
1157
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sortie sortir
Definition Action de sortir. Passer du dedans vers le dehors.

Where the eye mixes sortie and sortir

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

6 ch
sortie
6 ch
sortir

Look-alike desk: sortie vs sortir

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sortie is \sɔʁ.ti\ while sortir is \sɔʁ.tiʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “sortie” becomes r in “sortir”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1157, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sortie is recorded at frequency rank #623, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɔʁ.ti\. 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 1157, this pair ranks #438,529 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sortie vs sortir

Shared letters: iorst. Private to "sortie": e. Private to "sortir": -.

"sortie" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "sortir" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sortieosrtie · sorite · sorrtie · sortei · sorttie · sotrie · srotie · ssortie
  • sortirosrtir · soritr · sorrtir · sortirr · sortri · sorttir · sotrir · srotir

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sortie" and "sortir" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sortie" is a noun and "sortir" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sortie" vs "sortir" - which ranks higher?
"sortir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #534 in our French list, against #623 for "sortie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sortie" 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 #438,529 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sortie" and "sortir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sortir vs sortiras". 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 #438,529 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