souvenezvssouvenuWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#8,783
“souvenez” frequency rank
#26,880
“souvenu” frequency rank
35663
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature souvenez souvenu
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de souvenir. Participe passé masculin singulier de souvenir.

Where the eye mixes souvenez and souvenu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. souvenez runs 8 letters (CVVCVCVC) against souvenu's 7 (CVVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
souvenez
7 ch
souvenu

Look-alike desk: souvenez vs souvenu

A purely visual mix-up. souvenez (\su.və.ne\) and souvenu (\su.və.ny\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35663, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

souvenez is recorded at frequency rank #8,783, classified as averb, pronounced \su.və.ne\. souvenu is at rank #26,880, tagged as averb, pronounced \su.və.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 35663, this pair ranks #275,119 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of souvenez vs souvenu

Shared letters: enosuv. Private to "souvenez": z. Private to "souvenu": -.

"souvenez" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVC  ·  "souvenu" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • souvenez ← osuvenez · souevnez · souveenz · souvenezz · souvennez · souvenze · souvneez · souvvenez
  • souvenu ← osuvenu · souevnu · souvennu · souveun · souvneu · souvvenu · sovuenu · ssouvenu

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "souvenez" and "souvenu" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\su.və.ne\ versus \su.və.ny\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "souvenez" vs "souvenu" - which ranks higher?
"souvenez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,783 in our French list, against #26,880 for "souvenu". 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 "souvenez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "souvenu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #275,119 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "souvenez" and "souvenu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sauvent vs souvenu". 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 #275,119 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