STSvssuisTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#40,514
“STS” frequency rank
#77
“suis” frequency rank
40591
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature STS suis
Definition Navette spatiale américaine ayant effectué 135 vols pour l'agence spatiale américaine (NASA) entre le 12 avril 1981 et juillet 2011. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de être.

Where the eye mixes STS and suis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
STS
4 ch
suis

Why the eye confuses STS with suis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: STS is \ɛs te ɛs\ while suis is \sɥi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40591, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

STS is recorded at frequency rank #40,514, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛs te ɛs\. suis is at rank #77, tagged as averb, pronounced \sɥi\.

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 40591, this pair ranks #239,373 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of STS vs suis

Shared letters: s. Private to "STS": t. Private to "suis": iu.

"STS" · 3 letters · shape CCC  ·  "suis" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • suissius · ssuis · suiss · susi · usis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "STS" and "suis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "STS" is a noun and "suis" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "STS" vs "suis" - which ranks higher?
"suis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #77 in our French list, against #40,514 for "STS". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "STS" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "suis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #239,373 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "STS" and "suis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "STS 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 #239,373 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