stvssudConfusable pair

Quick tell: st is a symbol, sud is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“st” is a symbol and “sud” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,190
“st” frequency rank
#439
“sud” frequency rank
1629
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature st sud
Definition Symbole de la stère. Point cardinal opposé au nord ; direction du pôle de l’hémisphère austral et correspondant à l’azimut 180°.

Letter map: st vs sud

Shared letters muted; letters that set st and sud apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
st
3 ch
sud

Part-of-speech tell for st / sud

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: st is asymbol and sudanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1629, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

st is recorded at frequency rank #1,190, classified as asymbol. 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 1629, this pair ranks #437,683 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of st vs sud

Shared letters: s. Private to "st": t. Private to "sud": du.

"st" · 2 letters · shape CC  ·  "sud" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "st" and "sud" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "st" is a symbol and "sud" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "st" or "sud"?
"sud" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #439 in our French list, against #1,190 for "st". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "st" and "sud".

  • Full dictionary entry for "st" 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 #437,683 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "st" and "sud" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "st vs suu". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #437,683 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