Which to use
“saut” is a noun and “sur” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,187
- “saut” frequency rank
- #26
- “sur” frequency rank
- 5213
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | saut | sur |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de sauter, bond, mouvement brusque par lequel on s’élance en l’air. | Indique une position plus élevée. |
Where the eye mixes saut and sur
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between saut and sur
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: saut is \so\ while sur is \syʁ\. 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 (noun vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5213, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
saut is recorded at frequency rank #5,187, classified as anoun, pronounced \so\. sur is at rank #26, tagged as aprep, pronounced \syʁ\.
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 5213, this pair ranks #429,623 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of saut vs sur
Shared letters: su. Private to "saut": at. Private to "sur": r.
"saut" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "sur" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- saut ← asut · satu · sautt · ssaut · suat
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "saut" for "sur" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "saut" or "sur" show up more?
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 "saut" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #429,623 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "saut" and "sur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "saut 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 #429,623 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.