stevssucWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ste is a verb, suc is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ste” is a verb and “suc” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,412
“ste” frequency rank
#44,755
“suc” frequency rank
55167
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ste suc
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de stare. Liquide organique animal.

Where the eye mixes ste and suc

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
ste
3 ch
suc

Look-alike desk: ste vs suc

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ste is \ˈstɛ\ while suc is \syk\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55167, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ste is recorded at frequency rank #10,412, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈstɛ\. suc is at rank #44,755, tagged as anoun, pronounced \syk\.

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 55167, this pair ranks #129,237 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ste vs suc

Shared letters: s. Private to "ste": et. Private to "suc": cu.

"ste" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "suc" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ste" and "suc" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ste" is a verb and "suc" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ste" or "suc"?
"ste" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,412 in our French list, against #44,755 for "suc". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ste" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "suc" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #129,237 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ste" and "suc" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suc vs suu". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #129,237 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