sicvssuisConfusable pair

Quick tell: sic is a adverb, suis is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sic” is an adverb and “suis” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,752
“sic” frequency rank
#42,166
“suis” frequency rank
53918
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sic suis
Definition wirklich so und nicht anders Inessiv Plural des Substantivs suu „Mund“

Letter map: sic vs suis

Shared letters muted; letters that set sic and suis apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
sic
4 ch
suis

Grammar separator: sic vs suis

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sic is anadverb and suisanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53918, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sic is recorded at frequency rank #11,752, classified as anadv, pronounced [ziːk]. suis is at rank #42,166, tagged as anoun, 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 53918, this pair ranks #1,039,210 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sic vs suis

Shared letters: is. Private to "sic": c. Private to "suis": u.

"sic" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "suis" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • suissius · ssuis · suiss · susi · usis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sic" and "suis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sic" is an adverb and "suis" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "sic" or "suis" show up more?
"sic" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,752 in our German list, against #42,166 for "suis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "sic" vs "suis" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sic" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "suis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,039,210 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sic" and "suis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs suis". 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 #1,039,210 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