subievssubisWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#19,996
“subie” frequency rank
#16,747
“subis” frequency rank
36743
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature subie subis
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de subir. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de subir.

Same sound, different letters: subie vs subis

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. subie (CVCVV) and subis (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
subie
5 ch
subis

Same sound, different spelling - subie / subis

This is the hard kind. subie and subis are pronounced identically (\sy.bi\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - e in “subie” becomes s in “subis”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36743, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

subie is recorded at frequency rank #19,996, classified as averb, pronounced \sy.bi\. subis is at rank #16,747, tagged as averb, pronounced \sy.bi\.

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 36743, this pair ranks #267,428 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of subie vs subis

Shared letters: bisu. Private to "subie": e. Private to "subis": -.

"subie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "subis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • subie ← sbuie · ssubie · subbie · subei · suibe · usbie
  • subis ← sbuis · ssubis · subbis · subiss · subsi · suibs · usbis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "subie" and "subis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\sy.bi\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "subie" or "subis"?
"subis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,747 in our French list, against #19,996 for "subie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "subie" / "subis". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "subie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "subis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #267,428 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "subie" and "subis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sadie vs subie". 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 #267,428 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