soutenezvssoutenueWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: soutenez is a verb, soutenue is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“soutenez” is a verb and “soutenue” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,879
“soutenez” frequency rank
#6,661
“soutenue” frequency rank
33540
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature soutenez soutenue
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de soutenir. Féminin singulier de soutenu.

Where the eye mixes soutenez and soutenue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

8 ch
soutenez
8 ch
soutenue

Look-alike desk: soutenez vs soutenue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: soutenez is \su.tə.ne\ while soutenue is \su.tə.ny\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33540, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

soutenez is recorded at frequency rank #26,879, classified as averb, pronounced \su.tə.ne\. soutenue is at rank #6,661, tagged as anadj, pronounced \su.tə.ny\.

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 33540, this pair ranks #289,946 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of soutenez vs soutenue

Shared letters: enostu. Private to "soutenez": z. Private to "soutenue": -.

"soutenez" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVC  ·  "soutenue" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • soutenezosutenez · sotuenez · souetnez · souteenz · soutenezz · soutennez · soutenze · soutneez
  • soutenueosutenue · sotuenue · souetnue · souteneu · soutennue · souteune · soutneue · souttenue

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "soutenez" and "soutenue" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "soutenez" is a verb and "soutenue" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "soutenez" or "soutenue"?
"soutenue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,661 in our French list, against #26,879 for "soutenez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "soutenez" and "soutenue" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "soutenez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "soutenue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #289,946 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "soutenez" and "soutenue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soutane vs soutenez". 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 #289,946 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