shuivssudWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#34,752
“shui” frequency rank
#439
“sud” frequency rank
35191
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shui sud
Definition Orthographe par contrainte typographique par système h de ŝui. Point cardinal opposé au nord ; direction du pôle de l’hémisphère austral et correspondant à l’azimut 180°.

Where the eye mixes shui and sud

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

4 ch
shui
3 ch
sud

Visual trap between shui and sud

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: shui is \ˈʃu.i\ while sud is \syd\. 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 35191, 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\. sud is at rank #439, tagged as anoun, pronounced \syd\.

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 35191, this pair ranks #278,508 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of shui vs sud

Shared letters: su. Private to "shui": hi. Private to "sud": d.

"shui" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "sud" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shuihsui · shhui · shiu · sshui · suhi

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "shui" and "sud" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "shui" is a typographic variant and "sud" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "shui" or "sud" show up more?
"sud" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #439 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "shui" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sud" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #278,508 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shui" and "sud" 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 #278,508 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