soyvssuWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“soy” and “su” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#12,504
“soy” frequency rank
#8,094
“su” frequency rank
20598
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature soy su
Definition A common East Asian liquid sauce, made by subjecting boiled beans to long fermentation and then long digestion in salt and water. Alternative form of xu (“former Vietnamese currency”).

Letter map: soy vs su

Shared letters muted; letters that set soy and su apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
soy
2 ch
su

Corpus notes: soy and su

soy and su are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20598, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

soy is recorded at frequency rank #12,504, classified as anoun, pronounced /sɔɪ/. su is at rank #8,094, tagged as anoun.

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 20598, this pair ranks #429,978 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of soy vs su

Shared letters: s. Private to "soy": oy. Private to "su": u.

"soy" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "su" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "soy" for "su" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary English text, does "soy" or "su" show up more?
"su" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,094 in our English list, against #12,504 for "soy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "soy" and "su".

  • Full dictionary entry for "soy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "su" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #429,978 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "soy" and "su" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sif vs soy". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #429,978 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list