souhaitantvssouhaitonsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#10,584
“souhaitant” frequency rank
#9,915
“souhaitons” frequency rank
20499
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature souhaitant souhaitons
Definition Participe présent de souhaiter. Première personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de souhaiter.

Where the eye mixes souhaitant and souhaitons

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. souhaitant and souhaitons follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

10 ch
souhaitant
10 ch
souhaitons

Look-alike desk: souhaitant vs souhaitons

A purely visual mix-up. souhaitant (\swɛ.tɑ̃\) 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 20499, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

souhaitant is recorded at frequency rank #10,584, classified as averb, pronounced \swɛ.tɑ̃\. 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 20499, this pair ranks #367,973 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of souhaitant vs souhaitons

Shared letters: ahinostu. Private to "souhaitant": -. Private to "souhaitons": -.

"souhaitant" · 10 letters · shape CVVCVVCVCC  ·  "souhaitons" · 10 letters · shape CVVCVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • souhaitantosuhaitant · sohuaitant · souahitant · souhaiatnt · souhaitannt · souhaitantt · souhaitatn · souhaitnat
  • souhaitonsosuhaitons · sohuaitons · souahitons · souhaiotns · souhaitnos · souhaitonns · souhaitonss · souhaitosn

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "souhaitant" and "souhaitons" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\swɛ.tɑ̃\ versus \swɛ.tɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "souhaitant" or "souhaitons" show up more?
"souhaitons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,915 in our French list, against #10,584 for "souhaitant". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "souhaitant" 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 #367,973 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "souhaitant" and "souhaitons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "souhaitais vs souhaitant". 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 #367,973 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