soudevssouthWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#21,472
“soude” frequency rank
#10,586
“south” frequency rank
32058
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature soude south
Definition Hydroxyde de sodium, de formule NaOH. C'est un produit extrêmement dangereux car caustique pour les tissus vivants (→ voir soude caustique). Sud.

Where the eye mixes soude and south

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
soude
5 ch
south

Visual trap between soude and south

A purely visual mix-up. soude (\sud\) and south (\ˈsaʊθ\) 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 32058, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

soude is recorded at frequency rank #21,472, classified as anoun, pronounced \sud\. south is at rank #10,586, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈsaʊθ\.

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 32058, this pair ranks #299,806 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of soude vs south

Shared letters: osu. Private to "soude": de. Private to "south": ht.

"soude" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "south" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • soudeosude · sodue · soudde · soued · ssoude · suode
  • southosuth · sotuh · souht · southh · soutth · ssouth · suoth

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "soude" and "south" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\sud\ versus \ˈsaʊθ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "soude" or "south"?
"south" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,586 in our French list, against #21,472 for "soude". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "soude" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "south" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #299,806 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "soude" and "south" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soude vs Soult". 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 #299,806 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