suisvssusWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: suis is a verb, sus is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#77
“suis” frequency rank
#12,488
“sus” frequency rank
12565
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature suis sus
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de être. Dessus.

Where the eye mixes suis and sus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
suis
3 ch
sus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: suis is \sɥi\ while sus is \sys\. 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 (verb vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12565, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

suis is recorded at frequency rank #77, classified as averb, pronounced \sɥi\. sus is at rank #12,488, tagged as anadv, pronounced \sys\.

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 12565, this pair ranks #404,712 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of suis vs sus

Shared letters: su. Private to "suis": i. Private to "sus": -.

"suis" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "sus" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • suissius · ssuis · suiss · susi · usis

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "suis" and "sus" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "suis" is a verb and "sus" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "suis" or "sus"?
"suis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #77 in our French list, against #12,488 for "sus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "suis" and "sus". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "suis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #404,712 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "suis" and "sus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sus 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list