souhaitaisvssouhaitonsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#23,031
“souhaitais” frequency rank
#9,915
“souhaitons” frequency rank
32946
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature souhaitais souhaitons
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de souhaiter. Première personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de souhaiter.

Where the eye mixes souhaitais and souhaitons

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. souhaitais (CVVCVVCVVC) and souhaitons (CVVCVVCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

10 ch
souhaitais
10 ch
souhaitons

Visual trap between souhaitais and souhaitons

A purely visual mix-up. souhaitais (\swɛ.tɛ\) and souhaitons (\swɛ.tɔ̃\) 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 32946, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

souhaitais is recorded at frequency rank #23,031, classified as averb, pronounced \swɛ.tɛ\. souhaitons is at rank #9,915, tagged as averb, pronounced \swɛ.tɔ̃\.

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 32946, this pair ranks #293,896 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of souhaitais vs souhaitons

Shared letters: ahiostu. Private to "souhaitais": -. Private to "souhaitons": n.

"souhaitais" · 10 letters · shape CVVCVVCVVC  ·  "souhaitons" · 10 letters · shape CVVCVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • souhaitaisosuhaitais · sohuaitais · souahitais · souhaiatis · souhaitaiss · souhaitasi · souhaitias · souhaittais
  • souhaitonsosuhaitons · sohuaitons · souahitons · souhaiotns · souhaitnos · souhaitonns · souhaitonss · souhaitosn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "souhaitais" and "souhaitons" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\swɛ.tɛ\ versus \swɛ.tɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "souhaitais" vs "souhaitons" - which ranks higher?
"souhaitons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,915 in our French list, against #23,031 for "souhaitais". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "souhaitais" and "souhaitons" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "souhaitais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "souhaitons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #293,896 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "souhaitais" and "souhaitons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "souhaitaient vs souhaitais". 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 #293,896 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