Which to use
“shui” is a typographic variant and “sur” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #34,752
- “shui” frequency rank
- #26
- “sur” frequency rank
- 34778
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shui | sur |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Orthographe par contrainte typographique par système h de ŝui. | Indique une position plus élevée. |
Where the eye mixes shui and sur
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses shui with sur
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: shui is \ˈʃu.i\ while sur is \syʁ\. 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 preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34778, 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\. sur is at rank #26, tagged as aprep, pronounced \syʁ\.
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 34778, this pair ranks #281,448 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of shui vs sur
Shared letters: su. Private to "shui": hi. Private to "sur": r.
"shui" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "sur" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- shui ← hsui · shhui · shiu · sshui · suhi
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "shui" and "sur" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "shui" or "sur" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "shui" and "sur" 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 "sur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #281,448 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shui" and "sur" 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 #281,448 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.