sourivssurgiTell them apart

Which to use

“souri” and “surgi” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#19,687
“souri” frequency rank
#24,788
“surgi” frequency rank
44475
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature souri surgi
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de sourire. Participe passé masculin singulier de surgir.

Where the eye mixes souri and surgi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. souri (CVVCV) and surgi (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
souri
5 ch
surgi

Visual trap between souri and surgi

A purely visual mix-up. souri (\su.ʁi\) and surgi (\syʁ.ʒi\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44475, 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\. surgi is at rank #24,788, tagged as averb, pronounced \syʁ.ʒi\.

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 44475, this pair ranks #210,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of souri vs surgi

Shared letters: irsu. Private to "souri": o. Private to "surgi": g.

"souri" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "surgi" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • souriosuri · sorui · souir · sourri · ssouri · suori
  • surgisrugi · ssurgi · sugri · surggi · surig · surrgi · usrgi

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "souri" and "surgi" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\su.ʁi\ versus \syʁ.ʒi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "souri" or "surgi"?
"souri" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,687 in our French list, against #24,788 for "surgi". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "souri" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "surgi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #210,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "souri" and "surgi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "surgi vs surs". 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 #210,194 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