soupapesvssoupesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#31,745
“soupapes” frequency rank
#29,156
“soupes” frequency rank
60901
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature soupapes soupes
Definition Pluriel de soupape. Pluriel de soupe.

Where the eye mixes soupapes and soupes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. soupapes runs 8 letters (CVVCVCVC) against soupes's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
soupapes
6 ch
soupes

Why the eye confuses soupapes with soupes

A purely visual mix-up. soupapes (\su.pap\) and soupes (\sup\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60901, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

soupapes is recorded at frequency rank #31,745, classified as anoun, pronounced \su.pap\. soupes is at rank #29,156, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sup\.

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 60901, this pair ranks #95,197 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of soupapes vs soupes

Shared letters: eopsu. Private to "soupapes": a. Private to "soupes": -.

"soupapes" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVC  ·  "soupes" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • soupapes ← osupapes · sopuapes · souappes · soupaeps · soupapess · soupappes · soupapse · souppaes
  • soupes ← osupes · sopues · soueps · soupess · souppes · soupse · ssoupes · suopes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "soupapes" and "soupes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\su.pap\ versus \sup\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "soupapes" or "soupes"?
"soupes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,156 in our French list, against #31,745 for "soupapes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "soupapes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "soupes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #95,197 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "soupapes" and "soupes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sofres vs soupes". 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 #95,197 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