souhaitentvssouhaiterWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,190
“souhaitent” frequency rank
#6,762
“souhaiter” frequency rank
11952
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature souhaitent souhaiter
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de souhaiter. Former un souhait.

Where the eye mixes souhaitent and souhaiter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. souhaitent runs 10 letters (CVVCVVCVCC) against souhaiter's 9 (CVVCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
souhaitent
9 ch
souhaiter

Look-alike desk: souhaitent vs souhaiter

A purely visual mix-up. souhaitent (\swɛt\) and souhaiter (\swe.te\) 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 11952, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

souhaitent is recorded at frequency rank #5,190, classified as averb, pronounced \swɛt\. souhaiter is at rank #6,762, tagged as averb, pronounced \swe.te\.

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 11952, this pair ranks #407,146 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of souhaitent vs souhaiter

Shared letters: aehiostu. Private to "souhaitent": n. Private to "souhaiter": r.

"souhaitent" · 10 letters · shape CVVCVVCVCC  ·  "souhaiter" · 9 letters · shape CVVCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • souhaitentosuhaitent · sohuaitent · souahitent · souhaietnt · souhaitennt · souhaitentt · souhaitetn · souhaitnet
  • souhaiterosuhaiter · sohuaiter · souahiter · souhaietr · souhaiterr · souhaitre · souhaitter · souhatier

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "souhaitent" and "souhaiter" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\swɛt\ versus \swe.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "souhaitent" or "souhaiter"?
"souhaitent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,190 in our French list, against #6,762 for "souhaiter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "souhaitent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "souhaiter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #407,146 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "souhaitent" and "souhaiter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "souhaiter vs souhaiterai". 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 #407,146 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