Which to use
“souffler” and “souffre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,667
- “souffler” frequency rank
- #3,804
- “souffre” frequency rank
- 15471
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | souffler | souffre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pousser de l’air hors de la bouche. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif du verbe souffrir. |
Where the eye mixes souffler and souffre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. souffler runs 8 letters (CVVCCCVC) against souffre's 7 (CVVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: souffler vs souffre
A purely visual mix-up. souffler (\su.fle\) and souffre (\sufʁ\) 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 15471, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
souffler is recorded at frequency rank #11,667, classified as averb, pronounced \su.fle\. souffre is at rank #3,804, tagged as averb, pronounced \sufʁ\.
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 15471, this pair ranks #392,222 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of souffler vs souffre
Shared letters: eforsu. Private to "souffler": l. Private to "souffre": -.
"souffler" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCCVC · "souffre" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "souffler" and "souffre" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "souffler" or "souffre"?
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 "souffler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "souffre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #392,222 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "souffler" and "souffre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "souffler vs soufflerie". 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 #392,222 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.