stovssubTell them apart

Which to use

“sto” and “sub” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#31,269
“sto” frequency rank
#10,413
“sub” frequency rank
41682
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sto sub
Definition Contraction de la préposition et de l'article défini, « dans le ». Préposition latine, qui s’emploie dans des locutions telles que :

Where the eye mixes sto and sub

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

3 ch
sto
3 ch
sub

Look-alike desk: sto vs sub

A purely visual mix-up. sto (\sɛ\) and sub (\syb\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41682, 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\. sub is at rank #10,413, tagged as aprep, pronounced \syb\.

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 41682, this pair ranks #231,256 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sto vs sub

Shared letters: s. Private to "sto": ot. Private to "sub": bu.

"sto" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "sub" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sto" and "sub" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\sɛ\ versus \syb\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "sto" or "sub" show up more?
"sub" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,413 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sto" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sub" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #231,256 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sto" and "sub" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sto vs suu". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #231,256 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