souffrancesvssouffranteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“souffrances” and “souffrante” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#8,462
“souffrances” frequency rank
#39,545
“souffrante” frequency rank
48007
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature souffrances souffrante
Definition Pluriel de souffrance. Celle qui souffre.

Where the eye mixes souffrances and souffrante

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. souffrances runs 11 letters (CVVCCCVCCVC) against souffrante's 10 (CVVCCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
souffrances
10 ch
souffrante

Why the eye confuses souffrances with souffrante

A purely visual mix-up. souffrances (\su.fʁɑ̃s\) and souffrante (\su.fʁɑ̃t\) 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 48007, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

souffrances is recorded at frequency rank #8,462, classified as anoun, pronounced \su.fʁɑ̃s\. souffrante is at rank #39,545, tagged as anoun, pronounced \su.fʁɑ̃t\.

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 48007, this pair ranks #182,401 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of souffrances vs souffrante

Shared letters: aefnorsu. Private to "souffrances": c. Private to "souffrante": t.

"souffrances" · 11 letters · shape CVVCCCVCCVC  ·  "souffrante" · 10 letters · shape CVVCCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • souffrancesosuffrances · sofufrances · souffarnces · souffracnes · souffrancces · souffrancess · souffrancse · souffranecs
  • souffranteosuffrante · sofufrante · souffarnte · souffranet · souffrannte · souffrantte · souffratne · souffrnate

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "souffrances" and "souffrante" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\su.fʁɑ̃s\ versus \su.fʁɑ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "souffrances" vs "souffrante" - which ranks higher?
"souffrances" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,462 in our French list, against #39,545 for "souffrante". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "souffrances" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "souffrante" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #182,401 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "souffrances" and "souffrante" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soufflant vs souffrante". 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 #182,401 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list