sukivssungTell them apart

Quick tell: suki is a noun, sung is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“suki” is a noun and “sung” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,926
“suki” frequency rank
#8,213
“sung” frequency rank
51139
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature suki sung
Definition a favored customer; a regular who receives preferential treatment past participle of sing

Where the eye mixes suki and sung

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. suki (CVCV) and sung (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
suki
4 ch
sung

Look-alike desk: suki vs sung

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: suki is /ˈsu.kɪʔ/ while sung is /sʌŋ/. 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 51139, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

suki is recorded at frequency rank #42,926, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsu.kɪʔ/. sung is at rank #8,213, tagged as averb, pronounced /sʌŋ/.

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 51139, this pair ranks #168,037 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of suki vs sung

Shared letters: su. Private to "suki": ik. Private to "sung": gn.

"suki" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "sung" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • suki ← skui · ssuki · suik · sukki · uski
  • sung ← ssung · sugn · sungg · sunng · usng

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "suki" and "sung" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "suki" is a noun and "sung" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "suki" vs "sung" - which ranks higher?
"sung" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,213 in our English list, against #42,926 for "suki". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "suki" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sung" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #168,037 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "suki" and "sung" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suki vs sura". 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 #168,037 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