Which to use
“she” is a pronoun and “su” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,015
- “she” frequency rank
- #1,609
- “su” frequency rank
- 17624
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | she | su |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Elle. Se réfère à une femme de la troisième personne du sujet. | Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe savoir. |
Where the eye mixes she and su
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Why the eye confuses she with su
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: she is \ʃi\ while su is \sy\. 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 (pronoun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17624, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
she is recorded at frequency rank #16,015, classified as apron, pronounced \ʃi\. su is at rank #1,609, tagged as averb, pronounced \sy\.
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 17624, this pair ranks #382,270 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of she vs su
Shared letters: s. Private to "she": eh. Private to "su": u.
"she" · 3 letters · shape CCV · "su" · 2 letters · shape CV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "she" for "su" ever safe?
Which is more common, "she" or "su"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "she" and "su" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "she" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "su" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #382,270 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "she" and "su" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "she vs suu". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #382,270 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.