soudés vs sous, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“soudés” is an adjective and “sous” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,190
“soudés” frequency rank: #115
“sous” frequency rank: 26305
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	soudés	sous
Definition	Masculin pluriel de soudé.	Sert à marquer la situation d’une chose à l’égard d’une autre qui est au-dessus, par-dessus, qui la couvre en totalité ou en partie.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set soudés and sous apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

soudés

4 ch

sous

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: soudés is \su.de\ while sous is \su\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26305, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

soudés is recorded at frequency rank #26,190, classified as anadj, pronounced \su.de\. sous is at rank #115, tagged as aprep, pronounced \su\.

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 26305, this pair ranks #335,856 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of soudés vs sous

Shared letters: osu. Private to "soudés": dé. Private to "sous": -.

"soudés" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "sous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

sous ← osus · sosu · souss · ssous · suos

Frequency comparison

soudés#26,190

sous#115

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "soudés" and "sous" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "soudés" is an adjective and "sous" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "soudés" or "sous"?

"sous" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #115 in our French list, against #26,190 for "soudés". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering soudés vs sous

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “soudés”; for a preposition, it's “sous”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “soudés” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable