Which to use
“sans” is a preposition and “sus” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #80
- “sans” frequency rank
- #12,488
- “sus” frequency rank
- 12568
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sans | sus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Préposition marquant l’absence, le manque, l’exclusion d’une personne, d’une chose. — Note d’usage : On n’utilise généralement pas d’article indéfini ou partitif. Peut s’accentuer avec aucun. | Dessus. |
Where the eye mixes sans and sus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: sans vs sus
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sans is \sɑ̃\ while sus is \sys\. 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 (preposition vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12568, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sans is recorded at frequency rank #80, classified as aprep, pronounced \sɑ̃\. sus is at rank #12,488, tagged as anadv, pronounced \sys\.
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 12568, this pair ranks #404,696 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sans vs sus
Shared letters: s. Private to "sans": an. Private to "sus": u.
"sans" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "sus" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- sans ← asns · sanns · sanss · sasn · snas · ssans
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sans" and "sus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "sans" or "sus"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "sans" and "sus" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sans" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #404,696 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sans" and "sus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sus vs suu". 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 #404,696 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.