Which to use
“sour” and “soya” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,736
- “sour” frequency rank
- #49,368
- “soya” frequency rank
- 85104
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sour | soya |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Égout. | Sauce de soja. |
Where the eye mixes sour and soya
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. sour (CVVC) and soya (CVVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between sour and soya
A purely visual mix-up. sour (\suʁ\) and soya (\sɔ.ja\) 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 85104, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sour is recorded at frequency rank #35,736, classified as anoun, pronounced \suʁ\. soya is at rank #49,368, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɔ.ja\.
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 85104, this pair ranks #11,869 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of sour vs soya
Shared letters: os. Private to "sour": ru. Private to "soya": ay.
"sour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "soya" · 4 letters · shape CVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "sour" and "soya" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "sour" vs "soya" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "sour" and "soya" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sour" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "soya" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #11,869 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sour" and "soya" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Soraya vs soya". 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 #11,869 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.