Which to use
“sou” and “sud” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,242
- “sou” frequency rank
- #439
- “sud” frequency rank
- 10681
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sou | sud |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Monnaie d’or médiévale, dérivant du solidus romain. | Point cardinal opposé au nord ; direction du pôle de l’hémisphère austral et correspondant à l’azimut 180°. |
Where the eye mixes sou and sud
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses sou with sud
A purely visual mix-up. sou (\su\) and sud (\syd\) 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 10681, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sou is recorded at frequency rank #10,242, classified as anoun, pronounced \su\. sud is at rank #439, tagged as anoun, pronounced \syd\.
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 10681, this pair ranks #412,044 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sou vs sud
Shared letters: su. Private to "sou": o. Private to "sud": d.
"sou" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "sud" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sou" and "sud" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "sou" or "sud"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "sou" and "sud" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sou" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sud" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #412,044 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sou" and "sud" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sou vs suu". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #412,044 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.