STS vs surs, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#40,514
“STS” frequency rank: #45,900
“surs” frequency rank: 86414
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	STS	surs
Definition	Navette spatiale américaine ayant effectué 135 vols pour l'agence spatiale américaine (NASA) entre le 12 avril 1981 et juillet 2011.	Masculin pluriel de l’adjectif sur.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set STS and surs apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

STS

4 ch

surs

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: STS is \ɛs te ɛs\ while surs is \syʁ\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86414, 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\. surs is at rank #45,900, tagged as anadj, pronounced \syʁ\.

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 86414, this pair ranks #9,732 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of STS vs surs

Shared letters: s. Private to "STS": t. Private to "surs": ru.

"STS" · 3 letters · shape CCC · "surs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

surs ← srus · ssurs · surrs · surss · susr

Frequency comparison

STS#40,514

surs#45,900

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "STS" and "surs" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "STS" is a noun and "surs" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "STS" or "surs"?

"STS" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,514 in our French list, against #45,900 for "surs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering STS vs surs

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “STS”; for an adjective, it's “surs”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “STS” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable