sunvssursWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: sun is a verb, surs is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sun” is a verb and “surs” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,897
“sun” frequency rank
#45,900
“surs” frequency rank
52797
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sun surs
Definition Chanter Masculin pluriel de l’adjectif sur.

Letter map: sun vs surs

Shared letters muted; letters that set sun and surs apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
sun
4 ch
surs

Grammar separator: sun vs surs

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sun is averb and sursanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52797, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sun is recorded at frequency rank #6,897, classified as averb. surs is at rank #45,900, 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 52797, this pair ranks #145,218 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sun vs surs

Shared letters: su. Private to "sun": n. Private to "surs": r.

"sun" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "surs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • surssrus · ssurs · surrs · surss · susr

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sun" for "surs" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sun" is a verb and "surs" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sun" or "surs"?
"sun" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,897 in our French list, against #45,900 for "surs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "sun" vs "surs" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sun" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "surs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #145,218 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sun" and "surs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "surs 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 #145,218 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