StarvssurConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#1,640
“Star” frequency rank
#26
“sur” frequency rank
1666
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Star sur
Definition Nom de famille. Indique une position plus élevée.

Letter map: Star vs sur

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

4 ch
Star
3 ch
sur

Grammar separator: Star vs sur

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Star is aname and surapreposition. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1666, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Star is recorded at frequency rank #1,640, classified as aname. 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 1666, this pair ranks #437,610 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Star vs sur

Shared letters: rs. Private to "Star": at. Private to "sur": u.

"Star" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "sur" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Starsatr · sstar · stra · sttar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Star" and "sur" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Star" is a name and "sur" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Star" vs "sur" - which ranks higher?
"sur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26 in our French list, against #1,640 for "Star". 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 "Star" and "sur".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Star" 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 #437,610 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Star" and "sur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Star vs stase". 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 #437,610 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