samvssuuWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sam is a adverb, suu is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sam” is an adverb and “suu” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,285
“sam” frequency rank
#49,960
“suu” frequency rank
54245
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sam suu
Definition Du tout (combiné avec la négation). Son.

Letter map: sam vs suu

Shared letters muted; letters that set sam and suu apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
sam
3 ch
suu

Role in the sentence - sam and suu

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sam is anadverb and suuanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54245, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sam is recorded at frequency rank #4,285, classified as anadv. suu is at rank #49,960, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ˈsuː\.

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 54245, this pair ranks #135,291 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sam vs suu

Shared letters: s. Private to "sam": am. Private to "suu": u.

"sam" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "suu" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sam" for "suu" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sam" is an adverb and "suu" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "sam" or "suu" show up more?
"sam" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,285 in our French list, against #49,960 for "suu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "sam" and "suu".

  • Full dictionary entry for "sam" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "suu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #135,291 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sam" and "suu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "SSR vs suu". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #135,291 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list