scievssuisTell them apart

Quick tell: scie is a noun, suis is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“scie” is a noun and “suis” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,863
“scie” frequency rank
#77
“suis” frequency rank
12940
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature scie suis
Definition Outil, instrument ou machine possédant une lame dentée (rectiligne ou circulaire) et dont on se sert pour scier. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de être.

Where the eye mixes scie and suis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. scie (CCVV) and suis (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
scie
4 ch
suis

Why the eye confuses scie with suis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: scie is \si\ while suis is \sɥi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12940, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

scie is recorded at frequency rank #12,863, classified as anoun, pronounced \si\. suis is at rank #77, tagged as averb, pronounced \sɥi\.

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 12940, this pair ranks #403,106 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of scie vs suis

Shared letters: is. Private to "scie": ce. Private to "suis": u.

"scie" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "suis" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sciecsie · sccie · scei · sice · sscie
  • suissius · ssuis · suiss · susi · usis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "scie" and "suis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "scie" is a noun and "suis" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "scie" vs "suis" - which ranks higher?
"suis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #77 in our French list, against #12,863 for "scie". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "scie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "suis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #403,106 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "scie" and "suis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "scie vs spi". 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 #403,106 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