Which to use
“sais” and “sous” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,467
- “sais” frequency rank
- #25,213
- “sous” frequency rank
- 69680
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sais | sous |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A groom, or servant with responsibility for the horses. | plural of sou |
Where the eye mixes sais and sous
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. sais and sous follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between sais and sous
A purely visual mix-up. sais (/saɪs/) and sous (/suːz/) 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 69680, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sais is recorded at frequency rank #44,467, classified as anoun, pronounced /saɪs/. sous is at rank #25,213, tagged as anoun, pronounced /suːz/.
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 69680, this pair ranks #53,542 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of sais vs sous
Shared letters: s. Private to "sais": ai. Private to "sous": ou.
"sais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "sous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "sais" and "sous" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "sais" vs "sous" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "sais" and "sous" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sous" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #53,542 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sais" and "sous" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sais vs suds". 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 #53,542 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.