soupevssourceTell them apart

Which to use

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

#4,893
“soupe” frequency rank
#662
“source” frequency rank
5555
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature soupe source
Definition Pain que l’on trempe dans le potage. Point d’émergence naturelle d’eau, généralement souterraine, à la surface du sol.

Where the eye mixes soupe and source

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
soupe
6 ch
source

Why the eye confuses soupe with source

A purely visual mix-up. soupe (\sup\) and source (\suʁs\) 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 5555, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

soupe is recorded at frequency rank #4,893, classified as anoun, pronounced \sup\. source is at rank #662, tagged as anoun, pronounced \suʁs\.

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 5555, this pair ranks #428,694 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of soupe vs source

Shared letters: eosu. Private to "soupe": p. Private to "source": cr.

"soupe" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "source" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • soupeosupe · sopue · souep · souppe · ssoupe · suope
  • sourceosurce · soruce · soucre · sourcce · sourec · sourrce · ssource · suorce

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "soupe" for "source" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\sup\ versus \suʁs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "soupe" vs "source" - which ranks higher?
"source" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #662 in our French list, against #4,893 for "soupe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "soupe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "source" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #428,694 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "soupe" and "source" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Soult vs soupe". 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 #428,694 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