Which to use
“souverain” and “souverains” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,502
- “souverain” frequency rank
- #12,482
- “souverains” frequency rank
- 17984
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | souverain | souverains |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est suprême ; excellent ; qui est au plus haut point en son genre. | Masculin pluriel de souverain. |
Same sound, different letters: souverain vs souverains
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. souverain runs 9 letters (CVVCVCVVC) against souverains's 10 (CVVCVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - souverain and souverains
This is the hard kind. souverain and souverains are pronounced identically (\su.vʁɛ̃\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “souverain” sits inside “souverains”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17984, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
souverain is recorded at frequency rank #5,502, classified as anadj, pronounced \su.vʁɛ̃\. souverains is at rank #12,482, tagged as anadj, pronounced \su.vʁɛ̃\.
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 17984, this pair ranks #380,542 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of souverain vs souverains
Shared letters: aeinorsuv. Private to "souverain": -. Private to "souverains": -.
"souverain" · 9 letters · shape CVVCVCVVC · "souverains" · 10 letters · shape CVVCVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- souverain ← osuverain · souevrain · souvearin · souverainn · souverani · souverian · souverrain · souvreain
- souverains ← osuverains · souevrains · souvearins · souverainns · souverainss · souveraisn · souveranis · souverians
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "souverain" for "souverains" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "souverain" or "souverains" show up more?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "souverain" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "souverains" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #380,542 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "souverain" and "souverains" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "souvenais vs souverains". 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 #380,542 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.