Which to use
“souffre” and “souffres” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,804
- “souffre” frequency rank
- #35,287
- “souffres” frequency rank
- 39091
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | souffre | souffres |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif du verbe souffrir. | Deuxième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe souffrir. |
Same sound, different letters: souffre vs souffres
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. souffre runs 7 letters (CVVCCCV) against souffres's 8 (CVVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - souffre / souffres
This is the hard kind. souffre and souffres are pronounced identically (\sufʁ\) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “souffre” sits inside “souffres”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39091, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
souffre is recorded at frequency rank #3,804, classified as averb, pronounced \sufʁ\. souffres is at rank #35,287, 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 39091, this pair ranks #250,578 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of souffre vs souffres
Shared letters: eforsu. Private to "souffre": -. Private to "souffres": -.
"souffre" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV · "souffres" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "souffre" and "souffres" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "souffre" or "souffres" show up more?
What to do next
"souffre" and "souffres" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "souffre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "souffres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #250,578 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "souffre" and "souffres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sofres vs souffres". 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 #250,578 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.