doucesvsdouéesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#9,153
“douces” frequency rank
#46,709
“douées” frequency rank
55862
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature douces douées
Definition Féminin pluriel de doux. Féminin pluriel de doué.

Where the eye mixes douces and douées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
douces
6 ch
douées

Look-alike desk: douces vs douées

A purely visual mix-up. douces (\dus\) and douées (\dwe\) 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 a single letter - c in “douces” becomes é in “douées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55862, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

douces is recorded at frequency rank #9,153, classified as anadj, pronounced \dus\. douées is at rank #46,709, tagged as anadj, pronounced \dwe\.

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 55862, this pair ranks #124,735 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of douces vs douées

Shared letters: deosu. Private to "douces": c. Private to "douées": é.

"douces" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "douées" · 6 letters · shape CVVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • doucesddouces · docues · doucces · doucess · doucse · douecs · duoces · oduces

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "douces" and "douées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\dus\ versus \dwe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "douces" vs "douées" - which ranks higher?
"douces" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,153 in our French list, against #46,709 for "douées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "douces" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "douées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #124,735 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "douces" and "douées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Dombes vs douées". 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 #124,735 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