sourdevssouriezWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sourde is a noun, souriez is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sourde” is a noun and “souriez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,569
“sourde” frequency rank
#32,603
“souriez” frequency rank
47172
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sourde souriez
Definition Femme sourde. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de sourire.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set sourde and souriez apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
sourde
7 ch
souriez

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sourde is \suʁd\ while souriez is \su.ʁi.je\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47172, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sourde is recorded at frequency rank #14,569, classified as anoun, pronounced \suʁd\. souriez is at rank #32,603, tagged as averb, pronounced \su.ʁi.je\.

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 47172, this pair ranks #189,005 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sourde vs souriez

Shared letters: eorsu. Private to "sourde": d. Private to "souriez": iz.

"sourde" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "souriez" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sourdeosurde · sorude · soudre · sourdde · soured · sourrde · ssourde · suorde
  • souriezosuriez · soruiez · souirez · soureiz · souriezz · sourize · sourriez · ssouriez

Frequency comparison

sourde#14,569
souriez#32,603

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sourde" and "souriez" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sourde" is a noun and "souriez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sourde" or "souriez"?
"sourde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,569 in our French list, against #32,603 for "souriez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering sourde vs souriez

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “sourde”; for a verb, it's “souriez”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “sourde” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list