oui

/\wi\/ adv

Letters

3 characters

Frequency Rank

#132

in French word usage

Misspellings

0

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

oui is anFrenchadv. It means: Mot utilisé pour apporter une réponse affirmative ou marquer l'accord sur une proposition. Il s’emploie aussi au début d’une phrase qui ne répond pas à une question exprimée ou au cours d’une phras... Pronounced \wi\. It ranks #132 in French word frequency. Often confused with ow and ox.

Key facts for oui
PropertyValue
Headwordoui
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdv
IPA\wi\
Letters3
Frequency rank#132
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of oui in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for oui is 3 letters long, classified as anadv, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \wi\. Corpus data places it at rank #132 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for oui in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable French patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ow", "ox", "oy", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is oui, spelled O-U-I, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Mot utilisé pour apporter une réponse affirmative ou marquer l'accord sur une proposition. Il s’emploie aussi au début d’une phrase qui ne répond pas à une question exprimée ou au cours d’une phrase, pour marquer ou accentuer le caractère affirmatif de cette phrase. Il s’emploie dans le discours direct en réponse à une interrogation. Il est alors seul ou joint à des adverbes qui renforcent l’affirmation comme certes, vraiment, etc.
  2. 2
    Comme marqueur de question-tag pour signifier l'agacement ou l'impatience.
  3. 3
    Pour indiquer que l'on écoute ou que l'on comprend ce qui est dit, sans forcément l'approuver.
  4. 4
    Question courte signifiant "Que désirez-vous ?".
  5. 5
    C’est vrai. C’est ça.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Frequency rank: #132 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "oui"?
"oui" is spelled O-U-I. The IPA pronunciation is \wi\.
What does "oui" mean?
As an adv, "oui" means: Mot utilisé pour apporter une réponse affirmative ou marquer l'accord sur une proposition. Il s’emploie aussi au début d’une phrase qui ne répond pas à une question exprimée ou au cours d’une phras...
What words are commonly confused with "oui"?
"oui" is commonly confused with "ow", "ox", "oy". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "oui"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "oui" is \wi\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "oui" come from?
"oui" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter O in our French index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.