Which to use
“souffrait” and “soustrait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,801
- “souffrait” frequency rank
- #35,288
- “soustrait” frequency rank
- 50089
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | souffrait | soustrait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de souffrir. | Participe passé masculin singulier de soustraire. |
Where the eye mixes souffrait and soustrait
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. souffrait and soustrait follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: souffrait vs soustrait
A purely visual mix-up. souffrait (\su.fʁɛ\) and soustrait (\sus.tʁɛ\) 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 50089, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
souffrait is recorded at frequency rank #14,801, classified as averb, pronounced \su.fʁɛ\. soustrait is at rank #35,288, tagged as averb, pronounced \sus.tʁɛ\.
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 50089, this pair ranks #165,404 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of souffrait vs soustrait
Shared letters: aiorstu. Private to "souffrait": f. Private to "soustrait": -.
"souffrait" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCCVVC · "soustrait" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "souffrait" and "soustrait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "souffrait" or "soustrait" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "souffrait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "soustrait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #165,404 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "souffrait" and "soustrait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "souffrait vs souffrirait". 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 #165,404 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.