shuivssusWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: shui is a typographic variant, sus is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#34,752
“shui” frequency rank
#12,488
“sus” frequency rank
47240
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes shui and sus

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

4 ch
shui
3 ch
sus

Look-alike desk: shui vs sus

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: shui is \ˈʃu.i\ while sus is \sys\. 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 adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47240, 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\. sus is at rank #12,488, tagged as anadv, pronounced \sys\.

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 47240, this pair ranks #188,452 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of shui vs sus

Shared letters: su. Private to "shui": hi. Private to "sus": -.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shuihsui · shhui · shiu · sshui · suhi

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "shui" for "sus" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "shui" is a typographic variant and "sus" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "shui" or "sus"?
"sus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,488 in our French list, against #34,752 for "shui". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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 "sus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #188,452 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shui" and "sus" 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 #188,452 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