Which to use
“sympathies” is a noun and “sympathiques” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,389
- “sympathies” frequency rank
- #17,017
- “sympathiques” frequency rank
- 47406
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sympathies | sympathiques |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de sympathie. | Pluriel de sympathique. |
Where the eye mixes sympathies and sympathiques
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. sympathies runs 10 letters (CVCCVCCVVC) against sympathiques's 12 (CVCCVCCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses sympathies with sympathiques
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sympathies is \sɛ̃.pa.ti\ while sympathiques 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 47406, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sympathies is recorded at frequency rank #30,389, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛ̃.pa.ti\. sympathiques is at rank #17,017, 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 47406, this pair ranks #187,209 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sympathies vs sympathiques
Shared letters: aehimpsty. Private to "sympathies": -. Private to "sympathiques": qu.
"sympathies" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC · "sympathiques" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- sympathies ← smypathies · ssympathies · symapthies · symmpathies · sympahties · sympatheis · sympathhies · sympathiess
- sympathiques ← smypathiques · ssympathiques · symapthiques · symmpathiques · sympahtiques · sympathhiques · sympathiqeus · sympathiqques
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sympathies" and "sympathiques" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "sympathies" or "sympathiques" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "sympathies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sympathiques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #187,209 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sympathies" and "sympathiques" 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 #187,209 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.