slipsvssuisConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#35,279
“slips” frequency rank
#77
“suis” frequency rank
35356
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature slips suis
Definition Pluriel de slip. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de être.

Where the eye mixes slips and suis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
slips
4 ch
suis

Visual trap between slips and suis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: slips is \slip\ while suis is \sɥi\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35356, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

slips is recorded at frequency rank #35,279, classified as anoun, pronounced \slip\. suis is at rank #77, tagged as averb, pronounced \sɥi\.

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 35356, this pair ranks #277,286 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of slips vs suis

Shared letters: is. Private to "slips": lp. Private to "suis": u.

"slips" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "suis" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • slipslsips · silps · slipps · slipss · slisp · sllips · slpis · sslips
  • suissius · ssuis · suiss · susi · usis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "slips" for "suis" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "slips" is a noun and "suis" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "slips" or "suis" show up more?
"suis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #77 in our French list, against #35,279 for "slips". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "slips" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "suis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #277,286 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "slips" and "suis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shops vs slips". 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 #277,286 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