suivrevssutureWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#815
“suivre” frequency rank
#21,179
“suture” frequency rank
21994
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature suivre suture
Definition Aller ou venir après. Jointure de deux parties du crâne qui entrent l’une dans l’autre par des dentelures et qui paraissent comme cousues ensemble.

Where the eye mixes suivre and suture

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. suivre (CVVCCV) and suture (CVCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
suivre
6 ch
suture

Look-alike desk: suivre vs suture

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: suivre is \sɥivʁ\ while suture is \sy.tyʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21994, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

suivre is recorded at frequency rank #815, classified as averb, pronounced \sɥivʁ\. suture is at rank #21,179, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sy.tyʁ\.

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 21994, this pair ranks #360,349 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of suivre vs suture

Shared letters: ersu. Private to "suivre": iv. Private to "suture": t.

"suivre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "suture" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • suivresiuvre · ssuivre · suirve · suiver · suivrre · suivvre · suvire · usivre
  • suturessuture · stuure · sutrue · sutture · sutuer · suturre · suutre · usture

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "suivre" and "suture" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "suivre" is a verb and "suture" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "suivre" or "suture" show up more?
"suivre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #815 in our French list, against #21,179 for "suture". 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 "suivre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "suture" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #360,349 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "suivre" and "suture" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sutra vs suture". 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 #360,349 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