soupiravssubiraWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#37,563
“soupira” frequency rank
#31,271
“subira” frequency rank
68834
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature soupira subira
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de soupirer. Troisième personne du singulier du futur de subir.

Where the eye mixes soupira and subira

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. soupira runs 7 letters (CVVCVCV) against subira's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
soupira
6 ch
subira

Visual trap between soupira and subira

A purely visual mix-up. soupira (\su.pi.ʁa\) and subira (\sy.bi.ʁa\) 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 68834, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

soupira is recorded at frequency rank #37,563, classified as averb, pronounced \su.pi.ʁa\. subira is at rank #31,271, tagged as averb, pronounced \sy.bi.ʁa\.

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 68834, this pair ranks #57,498 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of soupira vs subira

Shared letters: airsu. Private to "soupira": op. Private to "subira": b.

"soupira" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV  ·  "subira" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • soupiraosupira · sopuira · souipra · soupiar · soupirra · souppira · soupria · ssoupira
  • subirasbuira · ssubira · subbira · subiar · subirra · subria · suibra · usbira

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "soupira" and "subira" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\su.pi.ʁa\ versus \sy.bi.ʁa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "soupira" or "subira" show up more?
"subira" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,271 in our French list, against #37,563 for "soupira". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "soupira" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "subira" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #57,498 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "soupira" and "subira" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "subira vs sutra". 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 #57,498 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