Which to use
“soutenait” and “souvenais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,880
- “soutenait” frequency rank
- #29,157
- “souvenais” frequency rank
- 48037
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | soutenait | souvenais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de soutenir. | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de souvenir. |
Where the eye mixes soutenait and souvenais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. soutenait and souvenais follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses soutenait with souvenais
A purely visual mix-up. soutenait (\su.tə.nɛ\) and souvenais (\su.və.nɛ\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48037, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
soutenait is recorded at frequency rank #18,880, classified as averb, pronounced \su.tə.nɛ\. souvenais is at rank #29,157, tagged as averb, pronounced \su.və.nɛ\.
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 48037, this pair ranks #182,137 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of soutenait vs souvenais
Shared letters: aeinosu. Private to "soutenait": t. Private to "souvenais": v.
"soutenait" · 9 letters · shape CVVCVCVVC · "souvenais" · 9 letters · shape CVVCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "soutenait" and "souvenais" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "soutenait" vs "souvenais" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "soutenait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "souvenais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #182,137 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "soutenait" and "souvenais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "souvenais vs souvenant". 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 #182,137 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.