Which to use
“souffraient” and “souffrait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,071
- “souffraient” frequency rank
- #14,801
- “souffrait” frequency rank
- 51872
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | souffraient | souffrait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de souffrir. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de souffrir. |
Same sound, different letters: souffraient vs souffrait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. souffraient runs 11 letters (CVVCCCVVVCC) against souffrait's 9 (CVVCCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - souffraient and souffrait
This is the hard kind. souffraient and souffrait are pronounced identically (\su.fʁɛ\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51872, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
souffraient is recorded at frequency rank #37,071, classified as averb, pronounced \su.fʁɛ\. souffrait is at rank #14,801, tagged as averb, pronounced \su.fʁɛ\.
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 51872, this pair ranks #151,829 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of souffraient vs souffrait
Shared letters: afiorstu. Private to "souffraient": en. Private to "souffrait": -.
"souffraient" · 11 letters · shape CVVCCCVVVCC · "souffrait" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- souffraient ← osuffraient · sofufraient · souffarient · souffraeint · souffraiennt · souffraientt · souffraietn · souffrainet
- souffrait ← osuffrait · sofufrait · souffarit · souffraitt · souffrati · souffriat · souffrrait · soufrait
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "souffraient" and "souffrait" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "souffraient" or "souffrait" show up more?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "souffraient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "souffrait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #151,829 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "souffraient" and "souffrait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "souffraient vs suffiraient". 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 #151,829 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.