shuivsSkiWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: shui is a typographic variant, Ski is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“shui” is a typographic variant and “Ski” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,752
“shui” frequency rank
#3,038
“Ski” frequency rank
37790
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shui Ski
Definition Orthographe par contrainte typographique par système h de ŝui. Ski.

Where the eye mixes shui and Ski

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
shui
3 ch
Ski

Look-alike desk: shui vs Ski

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: shui is \ˈʃu.i\ while Ski is \ʃiː\. 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 (typographic variant vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37790, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shui is recorded at frequency rank #34,752, classified as atypographic variant, pronounced \ˈʃu.i\. Ski is at rank #3,038, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃiː\.

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 37790, this pair ranks #259,911 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of shui vs Ski

Shared letters: is. Private to "shui": hu. Private to "Ski": k.

"shui" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "Ski" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shuihsui · shhui · shiu · sshui · suhi

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "shui" for "Ski" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "shui" is a typographic variant and "Ski" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "shui" or "Ski" show up more?
"Ski" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,038 in our French list, against #34,752 for "shui". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "shui" and "Ski" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "shui" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Ski" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #259,911 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shui" and "Ski" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shui 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 #259,911 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