Which to use
“sourire” is a verb and “sourires” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,757
- “sourire” frequency rank
- #13,912
- “sourires” frequency rank
- 15669
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sourire | sourires |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Rire sans éclat, par un léger mouvement de la bouche et du visage. | Pluriel de sourire. |
Same sound, different letters: sourire vs sourires
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. sourire runs 7 letters (CVVCVCV) against sourires's 8 (CVVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - sourire and sourires
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: sourire and sourires carry the same recorded pronunciation, \su.ʁiʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “sourire” sits inside “sourires”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15669, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sourire is recorded at frequency rank #1,757, classified as averb, pronounced \su.ʁiʁ\. sourires is at rank #13,912, tagged as anoun, pronounced \su.ʁiʁ\.
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 15669, this pair ranks #391,346 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sourire vs sourires
Shared letters: eiorsu. Private to "sourire": -. Private to "sourires": -.
"sourire" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV · "sourires" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sourire" and "sourires" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "sourire" vs "sourires" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "sourire" / "sourires". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "sourire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sourires" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #391,346 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sourire" and "sourires" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soudures vs sourires". 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 #391,346 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.