Which to use
“suive” and “suivent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,330
- “suive” frequency rank
- #3,042
- “suivent” frequency rank
- 21372
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | suive | suivent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif du verbe suivre. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif du verbe suivre. |
Same sound, different letters: suive vs suivent
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. suive runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against suivent's 7 (CVVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: suive vs suivent
This is the hard kind. suive and suivent are pronounced identically (\sɥiv\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “suive” sits inside “suivent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21372, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
suive is recorded at frequency rank #18,330, classified as averb, pronounced \sɥiv\. suivent is at rank #3,042, tagged as averb, pronounced \sɥiv\.
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 21372, this pair ranks #363,516 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of suive vs suivent
Shared letters: eisuv. Private to "suive": -. Private to "suivent": nt.
"suive" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "suivent" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "suive" and "suivent" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "suive" or "suivent" show up more?
What to do next
"suive" and "suivent" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "suive" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "suivent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #363,516 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "suive" and "suivent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suive vs Suze". 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 #363,516 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.