sourivsSousaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: souri is a verb, Sousa is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“souri” is a verb and “Sousa” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,687
“souri” frequency rank
#40,025
“Sousa” frequency rank
59712
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature souri Sousa
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de sourire. Nom de famille.

Letter map: souri vs Sousa

Shared letters muted; letters that set souri and Sousa apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. souri and Sousa follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
souri
5 ch
Sousa

Grammar separator: souri vs Sousa

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: souri is averb and Sousaaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59712, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

souri is recorded at frequency rank #19,687, classified as averb, pronounced \su.ʁi\. Sousa is at rank #40,025, tagged as aname.

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 59712, this pair ranks #101,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of souri vs Sousa

Shared letters: osu. Private to "souri": ir. Private to "Sousa": a.

"souri" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "Sousa" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • souri ← osuri · sorui · souir · sourri · ssouri · suori
  • Sousa ← osusa · sosua · souas · soussa · ssousa · suosa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "souri" for "Sousa" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "souri" is a verb and "Sousa" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "souri" or "Sousa"?
"souri" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,687 in our French list, against #40,025 for "Sousa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "souri" and "Sousa".

  • Full dictionary entry for "souri" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Sousa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #101,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "souri" and "Sousa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sousa 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 #101,599 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