Which to use
“sympathie” and “sympathies” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,626
- “sympathie” frequency rank
- #30,389
- “sympathies” frequency rank
- 39015
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sympathie | sympathies |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Penchant instinctif qui attire des personnes les unes vers les autres. | Pluriel de sympathie. |
Same sound, different letters: sympathie vs sympathies
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. sympathie runs 9 letters (CVCCVCCVV) against sympathies's 10 (CVCCVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: sympathie vs sympathies
This is the hard kind. sympathie and sympathies are pronounced identically (\sɛ̃.pa.ti\) and both work as anoun. 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) - “sympathie” sits inside “sympathies”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39015, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sympathie is recorded at frequency rank #8,626, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛ̃.pa.ti\. sympathies is at rank #30,389, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɛ̃.pa.ti\.
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 39015, this pair ranks #251,128 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sympathie vs sympathies
Shared letters: aehimpsty. Private to "sympathie": -. Private to "sympathies": -.
"sympathie" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVV · "sympathies" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- sympathie ← smypathie · ssympathie · symapthie · symmpathie · sympahtie · sympathei · sympathhie · sympatihe
- sympathies ← smypathies · ssympathies · symapthies · symmpathies · sympahties · sympatheis · sympathhies · sympathiess
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sympathie" for "sympathies" ever safe?
Frequency check: "sympathie" vs "sympathies" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
"sympathie" and "sympathies" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "sympathie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sympathies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #251,128 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sympathie" and "sympathies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sympathies vs sympathiser". 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 #251,128 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.