shutvsSueWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: shut is a verb, Sue is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“shut” is a verb and “Sue” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,728
“shut” frequency rank
#22,913
“Sue” frequency rank
70641
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shut Sue
Definition schließen englischer weiblicher Vorname

Letter map: shut vs Sue

Shared letters muted; letters that set shut and Sue apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
shut
3 ch
Sue

Part-of-speech tell for shut / Sue

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: shut is averb and Sueaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70641, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shut is recorded at frequency rank #47,728, classified as averb, pronounced [ʃʌt]. Sue is at rank #22,913, tagged as aname, pronounced […].

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 70641, this pair ranks #440,168 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of shut vs Sue

Shared letters: su. Private to "shut": ht. Private to "Sue": e.

"shut" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "Sue" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shutshhut · shtu · shutt · sshut · suht

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "shut" for "Sue" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "shut" is a verb and "Sue" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "shut" vs "Sue" - which ranks higher?
"Sue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,913 in our German list, against #47,728 for "shut". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "shut" and "Sue". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "shut" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Sue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #440,168 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shut" and "Sue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "schütt vs shut". 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 #440,168 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list