SkivssukConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#3,038
“Ski” frequency rank
#47,626
“suk” frequency rank
50664
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ski suk
Definition Ski. Nœud dans le bois.

Where the eye mixes Ski and suk

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

3 ch
Ski
3 ch
suk

Why the eye confuses Ski with suk

A purely visual mix-up. Ski (\ʃiː\) and suk (\sʊk\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50664, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ski is recorded at frequency rank #3,038, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃiː\. 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 50664, this pair ranks #160,894 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Ski vs suk

Shared letters: ks. Private to "Ski": i. Private to "suk": u.

"Ski" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "suk" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Ski" and "suk" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʃiː\ versus \sʊk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "Ski" or "suk" show up more?
"Ski" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,038 in our French list, against #47,626 for "suk". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ski" 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 #160,894 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ski" and "suk" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suk vs suu". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #160,894 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