souvssuuWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sou is a noun, suu is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sou” is a noun and “suu” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,242
“sou” frequency rank
#49,960
“suu” frequency rank
60202
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sou suu
Definition Monnaie d’or médiévale, dérivant du solidus romain. Son.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set sou and suu apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
sou
3 ch
suu

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: sou and suu carry the same recorded pronunciation, \su\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - o in “sou” becomes u in “suu”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60202, 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\. suu is at rank #49,960, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ˈsuː\.

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 60202, this pair ranks #98,902 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sou vs suu

Shared letters: su. Private to "sou": o. Private to "suu": -.

"sou" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "suu" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequency comparison

sou#10,242
suu#49,960

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sou" and "suu" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sou" is a noun and "suu" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sou" or "suu"?
"sou" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,242 in our French list, against #49,960 for "suu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering sou vs suu

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “sou”; for an adjective, it's “suu”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “sou” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list