jovsjoueWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,932
“jo” frequency rank
#689
“joue” frequency rank
4621
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature jo joue
Definition (Nivernais) Coq. Partie du visage de l’humain qui est au-dessous des tempes et des yeux, et qui s’étend de chaque côté du nez jusqu’au menton dont la peau ferme latéralement la bouche.

Where the eye mixes jo and joue

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

2 ch
jo
4 ch
joue

Why the eye confuses jo with joue

A purely visual mix-up. jo (\ʒɔ\) and joue (\ʒu\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “jo” sits inside “joue”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4621, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

jo is recorded at frequency rank #3,932, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʒɔ\. joue is at rank #689, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʒu\.

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 4621, this pair ranks #431,133 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of jo vs joue

Shared letters: jo. Private to "jo": -. Private to "joue": eu.

"jo" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "joue" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • jouejjoue · joeu · juoe · ojue

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "jo" and "joue" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʒɔ\ versus \ʒu\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "jo" vs "joue" - which ranks higher?
"joue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #689 in our French list, against #3,932 for "jo". 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 "jo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "joue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #431,133 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "jo" and "joue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "jo 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

Confusion rank #431,133 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