issuvsissueTell them apart

Quick tell: issu is a adjective, issue is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“issu” is an adjective and “issue” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,769
“issu” frequency rank
#1,921
“issue” frequency rank
6690
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature issu issue
Definition Né (d’une personne, d’une lignée ou d’une race), descendant. Sortie, lieu par où l’on sort.

Same sound, different letters: issu vs issue

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.

4 ch
issu
5 ch
issue

Same sound, different spelling - issu / issue

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: issu and issue carry the same recorded pronunciation, \i.sy\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “issu” sits inside “issue”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6690, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

issu is recorded at frequency rank #4,769, classified as anadj, pronounced \i.sy\. issue is at rank #1,921, tagged as anoun, pronounced \i.sy\.

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 6690, this pair ranks #425,522 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of issu vs issue

Shared letters: isu. Private to "issu": -. Private to "issue": e.

"issu" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "issue" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • issuisu · sisu
  • issueisseu · isue · isuse · sisue

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "issu" and "issue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "issu" is an adjective and "issue" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "issu" or "issue" show up more?
"issue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,921 in our French list, against #4,769 for "issu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "issu" / "issue". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "issu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "issue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #425,522 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "issu" and "issue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "isi vs issu". 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 #425,522 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