souhaitervssouhaitezWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,762
“souhaiter” frequency rank
#7,246
“souhaitez” frequency rank
14008
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature souhaiter souhaitez
Definition Former un souhait. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de souhaiter.

Where the eye mixes souhaiter and souhaitez

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

9 ch
souhaiter
9 ch
souhaitez

Visual trap between souhaiter and souhaitez

A purely visual mix-up. souhaiter (\swe.te\) and souhaitez (\swɛ.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 a single letter - r in “souhaiter” becomes z in “souhaitez”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14008, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

souhaiter is recorded at frequency rank #6,762, classified as averb, pronounced \swe.te\. souhaitez is at rank #7,246, tagged as averb, pronounced \swɛ.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 14008, this pair ranks #398,594 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of souhaiter vs souhaitez

Shared letters: aehiostu. Private to "souhaiter": r. Private to "souhaitez": z.

"souhaiter" · 9 letters · shape CVVCVVCVC  ·  "souhaitez" · 9 letters · shape CVVCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • souhaiterosuhaiter · sohuaiter · souahiter · souhaietr · souhaiterr · souhaitre · souhaitter · souhatier
  • souhaitezosuhaitez · sohuaitez · souahitez · souhaietz · souhaitezz · souhaittez · souhaitze · souhatiez

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "souhaiter" and "souhaitez" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\swe.te\ versus \swɛ.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "souhaiter" vs "souhaitez" - which ranks higher?
"souhaiter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,762 in our French list, against #7,246 for "souhaitez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "souhaiter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "souhaitez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #398,594 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "souhaiter" and "souhaitez" 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 #398,594 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