soirvssonsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“soir” and “sons” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#47,619
“soir” frequency rank
#4,957
“sons” frequency rank
52576
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature soir sons
Definition noite (período entre o anoitecer e a meia-noite) forma plural de som:

Where the eye mixes soir and sons

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
soir
4 ch
sons

Look-alike desk: soir vs sons

A purely visual mix-up. soir (\swaʁ\) and sons (/ˈsõs/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52576, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

soir is recorded at frequency rank #47,619, classified as anoun, pronounced \swaʁ\. sons is at rank #4,957, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsõs/.

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 52576, this pair ranks #12,662 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of soir vs sons

Shared letters: os. Private to "soir": ir. Private to "sons": n.

"soir" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "sons" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • soirosir · sior · soirr · sori · ssoir
  • sonsosns · snos · sonns · sonss · sosn · ssons

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "soir" and "sons" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\swaʁ\ versus /ˈsõs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "soir" or "sons"?
"sons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,957 in our Portuguese list, against #47,619 for "soir". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "soir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,662 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "soir" and "sons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soap vs soir". 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 #12,662 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list