Which to use
“épée” is a noun and “eues” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,724
- “épée” frequency rank
- #24,212
- “eues” frequency rank
- 28936
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | épée | eues |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Arme offensive et défensive composée d’une longue lame affilée de section triangulaire avec une poignée et que les guerriers portaient au côté dans un fourreau. | Participe passé féminin pluriel de avoir. |
Where the eye mixes épée and eues
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Look-alike desk: épée vs eues
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: épée is \e.pe\ while eues is \y\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28936, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
épée is recorded at frequency rank #4,724, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.pe\. eues is at rank #24,212, tagged as averb, pronounced \y\.
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 28936, this pair ranks #319,726 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of épée vs eues
Shared letters: e. Private to "épée": pé. Private to "eues": su.
"épée" · 4 letters · shape VCVV · "eues" · 4 letters · shape VVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- eues ← eeus · euess · euse · uees
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "épée" for "eues" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "épée" or "eues" show up more?
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 "épée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "eues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #319,726 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "épée" and "eues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "étuis vs eues". 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 #319,726 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.