Which to use
“sympathie” is a noun and “sympathique” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,626
- “sympathie” frequency rank
- #5,816
- “sympathique” frequency rank
- 14442
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sympathie | sympathique |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Penchant instinctif qui attire des personnes les unes vers les autres. | Relatif à la sympathie. |
Where the eye mixes sympathie and sympathique
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. sympathie runs 9 letters (CVCCVCCVV) against sympathique's 11 (CVCCVCCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses sympathie with sympathique
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sympathie is \sɛ̃.pa.ti\ while sympathique is \sɛ̃.pa.tik\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14442, 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\. sympathique is at rank #5,816, tagged as anadj, pronounced \sɛ̃.pa.tik\.
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 14442, this pair ranks #396,635 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sympathie vs sympathique
Shared letters: aehimpsty. Private to "sympathie": -. Private to "sympathique": qu.
"sympathie" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVV · "sympathique" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- sympathie ← smypathie · ssympathie · symapthie · symmpathie · sympahtie · sympathei · sympathhie · sympatihe
- sympathique ← smypathique · ssympathique · symapthique · symmpathique · sympahtique · sympathhique · sympathiqeu · sympathiqque
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sympathie" and "sympathique" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "sympathie" or "sympathique" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "sympathie" and "sympathique" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sympathie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sympathique" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #396,635 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sympathie" and "sympathique" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sympathie 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 #396,635 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.