sisvssursWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#19,157
“sis” frequency rank
#45,900
“surs” frequency rank
65057
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sis surs
Definition Qui est situé. Masculin pluriel de l’adjectif sur.

Where the eye mixes sis and surs

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

3 ch
sis
4 ch
surs

Visual trap between sis and surs

A purely visual mix-up. sis (\si\) and surs (\syʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65057, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sis is recorded at frequency rank #19,157, classified as anadj, pronounced \si\. surs is at rank #45,900, tagged as anadj, 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 65057, this pair ranks #74,065 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sis vs surs

Shared letters: s. Private to "sis": i. Private to "surs": ru.

"sis" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "surs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • surssrus · ssurs · surrs · surss · susr

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sis" for "surs" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\si\ versus \syʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "sis" or "surs"?
"sis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,157 in our French list, against #45,900 for "surs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "surs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #74,065 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sis" and "surs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "surs 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 #74,065 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