shutvssukWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: shut is a verb, suk is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“shut” is a verb and “suk” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,005
“shut” frequency rank
#47,626
“suk” frequency rank
88631
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shut suk
Definition Refermer, fermer ce qui était ouvert, fermer. Nœud dans le bois.

Letter map: shut vs suk

Shared letters muted; letters that set shut and suk apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. shut runs 4 letters (CCVC) against suk's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
shut
3 ch
suk

Grammar separator: shut vs suk

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: shut is averb and sukanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 88631, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shut is recorded at frequency rank #41,005, classified as averb. suk is at rank #47,626, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sʊk\.

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 88631, this pair ranks #6,748 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of shut vs suk

Shared letters: su. Private to "shut": ht. Private to "suk": k.

"shut" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "suk" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shut ← hsut · shhut · shtu · shutt · sshut · suht

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "shut" for "suk" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "shut" is a verb and "suk" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "shut" vs "suk" - which ranks higher?
"shut" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,005 in our French list, against #47,626 for "suk". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "shut" and "suk".

  • Full dictionary entry for "shut" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "suk" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #6,748 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shut" and "suk" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suk 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 #6,748 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