Which to use
“sul” is an article and “Sully” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #33,033
- “sul” frequency rank
- #19,692
- “Sully” frequency rank
- 52725
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sul | Sully |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sur le. | Commune située dans le département du Calvados, en France. |
Where the eye mixes sul and Sully
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. sul runs 3 letters (CVC) against Sully's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses sul with Sully
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sul is \ˈsul\ while Sully is \sy.li\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “sul” sits inside “Sully”, and the parts of speech differ too (article vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52725, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sul is recorded at frequency rank #33,033, classified as anarticle, pronounced \ˈsul\. Sully is at rank #19,692, tagged as aname, pronounced \sy.li\.
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 52725, this pair ranks #145,723 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sul vs Sully
Shared letters: lsu. Private to "sul": -. Private to "Sully": y.
"sul" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "Sully" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- Sully ← sluly · ssully · sullyy · suly · sulyl · uslly
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sul" for "Sully" ever safe?
Which is more common, "sul" or "Sully"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "sul" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Sully" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #145,723 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sul" and "Sully" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sul 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 #145,723 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.