Which to use
“surprise” is a noun and “surprises” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,350
- “surprise” frequency rank
- #6,444
- “surprises” frequency rank
- 7794
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | surprise | surprises |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action par laquelle on surprend. | Féminin pluriel de l'adjectif surpris. |
Same sound, different letters: surprise vs surprises
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. surprise runs 8 letters (CVCCCVCV) against surprises's 9 (CVCCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - surprise and surprises
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: surprise and surprises carry the same recorded pronunciation, \syʁ.pʁiz\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “surprise” sits inside “surprises”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7794, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
surprise is recorded at frequency rank #1,350, classified as anoun, pronounced \syʁ.pʁiz\. surprises is at rank #6,444, tagged as anadj, pronounced \syʁ.pʁiz\.
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 7794, this pair ranks #422,097 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of surprise vs surprises
Shared letters: eiprsu. Private to "surprise": -. Private to "surprises": -.
"surprise" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCV · "surprises" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "surprise" and "surprises" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "surprise" or "surprises" show up more?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "surprise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "surprises" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #422,097 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "surprise" and "surprises" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "subprimes vs surprises". 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 #422,097 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.