srivssurWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: sri is a verb, sur is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sri” is a verb and “sur” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,017
“sri” frequency rank
#26
“sur” frequency rank
16043
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sri sur
Definition se Moquer Indique une position plus élevée.

Letter map: sri vs sur

Shared letters muted; letters that set sri and sur apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
sri
3 ch
sur

Role in the sentence - sri and sur

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sri is averb and surapreposition. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16043, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sri is recorded at frequency rank #16,017, classified as averb. 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 16043, this pair ranks #389,659 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sri vs sur

Shared letters: rs. Private to "sri": i. Private to "sur": u.

"sri" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "sur" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sri" and "sur" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sri" is a verb and "sur" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "sri" or "sur" show up more?
"sur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26 in our French list, against #16,017 for "sri". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "sri" and "sur".

  • Full dictionary entry for "sri" 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 #389,659 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sri" and "sur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sri vs suu". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #389,659 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