Which to use
“souffraient” and “suffiraient” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,071
- “souffraient” frequency rank
- #48,809
- “suffiraient” frequency rank
- 85880
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | souffraient | suffiraient |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de souffrir. | Troisième personne du pluriel du conditionnel de suffire. |
Where the eye mixes souffraient and suffiraient
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. souffraient (CVVCCCVVVCC) and suffiraient (CVCCVCVVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses souffraient with suffiraient
A purely visual mix-up. souffraient (\su.fʁɛ\) and suffiraient (\sy.fi.ʁɛ\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 85880, 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\. suffiraient is at rank #48,809, tagged as averb, pronounced \sy.fi.ʁɛ\.
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 85880, this pair ranks #10,601 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of souffraient vs suffiraient
Shared letters: aefinrstu. Private to "souffraient": o. Private to "suffiraient": -.
"souffraient" · 11 letters · shape CVVCCCVVVCC · "suffiraient" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- souffraient ← osuffraient · sofufraient · souffarient · souffraeint · souffraiennt · souffraientt · souffraietn · souffrainet
- suffiraient ← sfufiraient · ssuffiraient · suffiarient · suffiraeint · suffiraiennt · suffiraientt · suffiraietn · suffirainet
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "souffraient" and "suffiraient" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "souffraient" or "suffiraient" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "souffraient" and "suffiraient" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "souffraient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "suffiraient" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #10,601 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "souffraient" and "suffiraient" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suffiraient vs suffisaient". 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 #10,601 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.