Which to use
“souples” and “sourdes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,578
- “souples” frequency rank
- #42,062
- “sourdes” frequency rank
- 62640
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | souples | sourdes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de souple. | Féminin pluriel de sourd. |
Where the eye mixes souples and sourdes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. souples and sourdes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: souples vs sourdes
A purely visual mix-up. souples (\supl\) and sourdes (\suʁd\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62640, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
souples is recorded at frequency rank #20,578, classified as anadj, pronounced \supl\. sourdes is at rank #42,062, tagged as anadj, pronounced \suʁd\.
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 62640, this pair ranks #86,081 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of souples vs sourdes
Shared letters: eosu. Private to "souples": lp. Private to "sourdes": dr.
"souples" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "sourdes" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "souples" and "sourdes" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "souples" or "sourdes"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "souples" and "sourdes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "souples" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sourdes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #86,081 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "souples" and "sourdes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sofres vs sourdes". 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 #86,081 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.