Which to use
“sous” is a preposition and “suis” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #115
- “sous” frequency rank
- #77
- “suis” frequency rank
- 192
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sous | suis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sert à marquer la situation d’une chose à l’égard d’une autre qui est au-dessus, par-dessus, qui la couvre en totalité ou en partie. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de être. |
Where the eye mixes sous and suis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between sous and suis
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sous is \su\ while suis is \sɥi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 192, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sous is recorded at frequency rank #115, classified as aprep, pronounced \su\. 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 192, this pair ranks #439,993 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sous vs suis
Shared letters: su. Private to "sous": o. Private to "suis": i.
"sous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "suis" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sous" for "suis" ever safe?
Frequency check: "sous" vs "suis" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "sous" 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 #439,993 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sous" and "suis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sous 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 #439,993 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.