Which to use
“sous” and “sur” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #115
- “sous” frequency rank
- #26
- “sur” frequency rank
- 141
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sous | sur |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Indique une position plus élevée. |
Where the eye mixes sous and sur
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between sous and sur
A purely visual mix-up. sous (\su\) and sur (\syʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 141, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sous is recorded at frequency rank #115, classified as aprep, pronounced \su\. sur is at rank #26, tagged as aprep, pronounced \syʁ\.
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 141, this pair ranks #440,059 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sous vs sur
Shared letters: su. Private to "sous": o. Private to "sur": r.
"sous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "sur" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- sous ← osus · sosu · souss · ssous · suos
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sous" for "sur" ever safe?
Frequency check: "sous" vs "sur" - which ranks higher?
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 "sous" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #440,059 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sous" and "sur" 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 #440,059 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.