stovsstoreTell them apart

Quick tell: sto is a preposition, store is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sto” is a preposition and “store” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,269
“sto” frequency rank
#9,242
“store” frequency rank
40511
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sto store
Definition Contraction de la préposition et de l'article défini, « dans le ». Rideau fait d’étoffe, de lames de bois, etc., qui se lève et se baisse par le moyen d’un cordon ou d’un ressort, et qu’on met devant une fenêtre, à une portière de voiture, etc., pour se protéger du soleil.

Where the eye mixes sto and store

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
sto
5 ch
store

Look-alike desk: sto vs store

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sto is \sɛ\ while store is \stɔʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “sto” sits inside “store”, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40511, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sto is recorded at frequency rank #31,269, classified as aprep, pronounced \sɛ\. store is at rank #9,242, tagged as anoun, pronounced \stɔʁ\.

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 40511, this pair ranks #239,939 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sto vs store

Shared letters: ost. Private to "sto": -. Private to "store": er.

"sto" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "store" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • storesstore · stoer · storre · stroe · sttore · tsore

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sto" for "store" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sto" is a preposition and "store" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sto" vs "store" - which ranks higher?
"store" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,242 in our French list, against #31,269 for "sto". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "sto" and "store" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sto" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "store" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #239,939 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sto" and "store" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sto 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 #239,939 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