jeuvsjourWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#267
“jeu” frequency rank
#141
“jour” frequency rank
408
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature jeu jour
Definition Divertissement, activité avec des règles, pouvant être exercé seul, ou en groupe, pour s’amuser. Période de vingt-quatre heures, commençant généralement à minuit ; en certains lieux et à certaines époques, le jour commençait plutôt avec le lever ou le coucher du soleil.

Where the eye mixes jeu and jour

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
jeu
4 ch
jour

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. jeu (\ʒø\) and jour (\ʒuʁ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 408, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

jeu is recorded at frequency rank #267, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʒø\. jour is at rank #141, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʒuʁ\.

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 408, this pair ranks #439,690 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of jeu vs jour

Shared letters: ju. Private to "jeu": e. Private to "jour": or.

"jeu" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "jour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • jourjjour · joru · jourr · juor · ojur

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "jeu" and "jour" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʒø\ versus \ʒuʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "jeu" or "jour"?
"jour" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #141 in our French list, against #267 for "jeu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "jeu" and "jour". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "jeu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "jour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #439,690 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "jeu" and "jour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "jeu vs jor". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list