Which to use
“sou” is a noun and “sup” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,525
- “sou” frequency rank
- #13,818
- “sup” frequency rank
- 49343
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sou | sup |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An old French copper coin equal to one twentieth of a livre or twelve deniers; one sou is to the livre as one shilling is to the pound. | To sip; to take a small amount of food or drink into the mouth, especially with a spoon. |
Where the eye mixes sou and sup
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between sou and sup
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sou is /suː/ while sup is /sʌp/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49343, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sou is recorded at frequency rank #35,525, classified as anoun, pronounced /suː/. sup is at rank #13,818, tagged as averb, pronounced /sʌp/.
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 49343, this pair ranks #184,536 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sou vs sup
Shared letters: su. Private to "sou": o. Private to "sup": p.
"sou" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "sup" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "sou" and "sup" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "sou" or "sup" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "sou" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sup" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #184,536 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sou" and "sup" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sif vs sou". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #184,536 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.