stovssupWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: sto is a preposition, sup is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#31,269
“sto” frequency rank
#10,952
“sup” frequency rank
42221
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sto sup
Definition Contraction de la préposition et de l'article défini, « dans le ». Super

Where the eye mixes sto and sup

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

3 ch
sto
3 ch
sup

Visual trap between sto and sup

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sto is \sɛ\ while sup is \syp\. 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 (preposition vs intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42221, 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\. sup is at rank #10,952, tagged as anintj, pronounced \syp\.

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 42221, this pair ranks #227,272 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sto vs sup

Shared letters: s. Private to "sto": ot. Private to "sup": pu.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sto" and "sup" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sto" is a preposition and "sup" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "sto" or "sup" show up more?
"sup" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,952 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

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sto" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sup" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #227,272 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sto" and "sup" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sto vs suu". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #227,272 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