Which to use
“suffire” and “suffise” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #12,678
- “suffire” frequency rank
- #33,032
- “suffise” frequency rank
- 45710
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | suffire | suffise |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pouvoir satisfaire à quelque chose ou à un but donné. | Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de suffire. |
Where the eye mixes suffire and suffise
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. suffire and suffise follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses suffire with suffise
A purely visual mix-up. suffire (\sy.fiʁ\) and suffise (\sy.fiz\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - r in “suffire” becomes s in “suffise”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45710, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
suffire is recorded at frequency rank #12,678, classified as averb, pronounced \sy.fiʁ\. suffise is at rank #33,032, tagged as averb, pronounced \sy.fiz\.
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 45710, this pair ranks #200,618 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of suffire vs suffise
Shared letters: efisu. Private to "suffire": r. Private to "suffise": -.
"suffire" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "suffise" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "suffire" and "suffise" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "suffire" vs "suffise" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "suffire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "suffise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #200,618 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "suffire" and "suffise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suffise vs sunrise". 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 #200,618 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.