sautsvsstupsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“sauts” and “stups” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#17,000
“sauts” frequency rank
#41,021
“stups” frequency rank
58021
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sauts stups
Definition Pluriel de saut. Pluriel de stup.

Where the eye mixes sauts and stups

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
sauts
5 ch
stups

Why the eye confuses sauts with stups

A purely visual mix-up. sauts (\so\) and stups (\styp\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58021, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sauts is recorded at frequency rank #17,000, classified as anoun, pronounced \so\. stups is at rank #41,021, tagged as anoun, pronounced \styp\.

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 58021, this pair ranks #111,540 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sauts vs stups

Shared letters: stu. Private to "sauts": a. Private to "stups": p.

"sauts" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "stups" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sautsasuts · satus · saust · sautss · sautts · ssauts · suats
  • stupssstups · stpus · sttups · stupps · stupss · stusp · sutps · tsups

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sauts" and "stups" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\so\ versus \styp\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "sauts" or "stups"?
"sauts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,000 in our French list, against #41,021 for "stups". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sauts" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stups" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #111,540 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sauts" and "stups" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "studi vs stups". 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 #111,540 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