you's vs young, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“you's” is a contraction and “young” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,483
“you's” frequency rank: #364
“young” frequency rank: 41847
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	you's	young
Definition	Contraction of you + is.	In the early part of growth or life; born not long ago.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set you's and young apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

you's

5 ch

young

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: you's is acontraction and younganadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41847, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

you's is recorded at frequency rank #41,483, classified as acontraction. young is at rank #364, tagged as anadj, pronounced /jʌŋ/.

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 41847, this pair ranks #254,596 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of you's vs young

Shared letters: ouy. Private to "you's": s. Private to "young": gn.

"you's" · 4 letters · shape VVVC · "young" · 5 letters · shape VVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

young ← oyung · yonug · yougn · youngg · younng · yuong · yyoung

Frequency comparison

you's#41,483

young#364

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "you's" and "young" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "you's" is a contraction and "young" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "you's" or "young"?

"young" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #364 in our English list, against #41,483 for "you's". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering you's vs young

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a contraction, it's “you's”; for an adjective, it's “young”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “you's” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable