Which to use
“soutenait” and “souvenant” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,880
- “soutenait” frequency rank
- #49,950
- “souvenant” frequency rank
- 68830
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | soutenait | souvenant |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de soutenir. | Participe présent de souvenir. |
Where the eye mixes soutenait and souvenant
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. soutenait (CVVCVCVVC) and souvenant (CVVCVCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between soutenait and souvenant
A purely visual mix-up. soutenait (\su.tə.nɛ\) and souvenant (\su.və.nɑ̃\) 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 68830, 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\. souvenant is at rank #49,950, tagged as averb, pronounced \su.və.nɑ̃\.
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 68830, this pair ranks #57,519 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of soutenait vs souvenant
Shared letters: aenostu. Private to "soutenait": i. Private to "souvenant": v.
"soutenait" · 9 letters · shape CVVCVCVVC · "souvenant" · 9 letters · shape CVVCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "soutenait" for "souvenant" ever safe?
Frequency check: "soutenait" vs "souvenant" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "soutenait" and "souvenant" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "soutenait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "souvenant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #57,519 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "soutenait" and "souvenant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "souvenant vs souvenons". 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 #57,519 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.