Which to use
“sous” is a noun and “sun” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,213
- “sous” frequency rank
- #1,154
- “sun” frequency rank
- 26367
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sous | sun |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of sou | The star that is closest to the Earth. |
Where the eye mixes sous and sun
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses sous with sun
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sous is /suːz/ while sun is /sʌn/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26367, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sous is recorded at frequency rank #25,213, classified as anoun, pronounced /suːz/. sun is at rank #1,154, tagged as aname, pronounced /sʌn/.
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 26367, this pair ranks #387,235 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sous vs sun
Shared letters: su. Private to "sous": o. Private to "sun": n.
"sous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "sun" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- sous ← osus · sosu · souss · ssous · suos
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sous" and "sun" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "sous" or "sun"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "sous" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sun" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #387,235 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sous" and "sun" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sous 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 #387,235 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.