Which to use
“sour” and “sum” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,736
- “sour” frequency rank
- #30,825
- “sum” frequency rank
- 66561
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sour | sum |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Égout. | Unité monétaire utilisée en Ouzbékistan |
Where the eye mixes sour and sum
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between sour and sum
A purely visual mix-up. sour (\suʁ\) and sum (\sum\) 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 66561, 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\. sum is at rank #30,825, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sum\.
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 66561, this pair ranks #67,269 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of sour vs sum
Shared letters: su. Private to "sour": or. Private to "sum": m.
"sour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "sum" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- sour ← osur · soru · sourr · ssour · suor
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sour" and "sum" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "sour" or "sum"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "sour" and "sum" 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 "sum" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #67,269 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sour" and "sum" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sour vs suu". 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 #67,269 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.