sur

/\syʁ\/ prep

Letters

3 characters

Frequency Rank

#26

in French word usage

Misspellings

0

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

sur is aFrenchprep. It means: Indique une position plus élevée. Pronounced \syʁ\. It ranks #26 in French word frequency. Often confused with sy and SV.

Key facts for sur
PropertyValue
Headwordsur
LanguageFrench
Part of speechPrep
IPA\syʁ\
Letters3
Frequency rank#26
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of sur in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for sur is 3 letters long, classified as aprep, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \syʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #26 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for sur in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable French patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "sy", "SV", "SVP", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is sur, spelled S-U-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Indique une position plus élevée.
  2. 2
    Indique une supériorité.
  3. 3
    Indique une direction.
  4. 4
    Indique une position temporelle, un instant donné.
  5. 5
    Indique l’origine, la base ou ce qui sert de garantie morale.
  6. 6
    Indique un rapport de dimension.
  7. 7
    Indique un rapport de proportion.
  8. 8
    Indique un rapport de répétition.
  9. 9
    Indique une fraction.
  10. 10
    Exprime une idée de contact.
  11. 11
    Indique une proximité géographique. [NB : L'Académie française juge cet emploi inapproprié, mais en supposant que le mot est employé dans le sens de à.]
  12. 12
    Indique une approximation de temps ; vers.
  13. 13
    Indique une idée de connaissance.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Frequency rank: #26 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "sur"?
"sur" is spelled S-U-R. The IPA pronunciation is \syʁ\.
What does "sur" mean?
As a prep, "sur" means: Indique une position plus élevée.
What words are commonly confused with "sur"?
"sur" is commonly confused with "sy", "SV", "SVP". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "sur"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sur" is \syʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sur" come from?
"sur" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter S in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.