sujetvssureTell them apart

Which to use

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

#430
“sujet” frequency rank
#8,164
“sure” frequency rank
8594
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sujet sure
Definition Soumis, subordonné, dépendant, obligé d’obéir. Féminin singulier de sur : qui a un goût acide et aigrelet.

Where the eye mixes sujet and sure

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

5 ch
sujet
4 ch
sure

Why the eye confuses sujet with sure

A purely visual mix-up. sujet (\sy.ʒɛ\) and sure (\syʁ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8594, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sujet is recorded at frequency rank #430, classified as anadj, pronounced \sy.ʒɛ\. sure is at rank #8,164, 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 8594, this pair ranks #419,505 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sujet vs sure

Shared letters: esu. Private to "sujet": jt. Private to "sure": r.

"sujet" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "sure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sujetsjuet · ssujet · suejt · sujett · sujjet · sujte · usjet
  • suresrue · ssure · surre · usre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sujet" for "sure" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\sy.ʒɛ\ versus \syʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "sujet" or "sure"?
"sujet" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #430 in our French list, against #8,164 for "sure". 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 "sujet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #419,505 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sujet" and "sure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sure 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

Confusion rank #419,505 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