shutvssuWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“shut” and “su” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#41,005
“shut” frequency rank
#1,609
“su” frequency rank
42614
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shut su
Definition Refermer, fermer ce qui était ouvert, fermer. Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe savoir.

Letter map: shut vs su

Shared letters muted; letters that set shut and su apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
shut
2 ch
su

Pair insight - shut / su

shut and su are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42614, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shut is recorded at frequency rank #41,005, classified as averb. 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 42614, this pair ranks #224,273 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of shut vs su

Shared letters: su. Private to "shut": ht. Private to "su": -.

"shut" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "su" · 2 letters · shape CV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shuthsut · shhut · shtu · shutt · sshut · suht

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "shut" and "su" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "shut" vs "su" - which ranks higher?
"su" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,609 in our French list, against #41,005 for "shut". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "shut" and "su". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "shut" 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 #224,273 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shut" and "su" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shut 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 #224,273 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