JoãovsjoueWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: João is a name, joue is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“João” is a name and “joue” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,851
“João” frequency rank
#689
“joue” frequency rank
42540
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature João joue
Definition Prénom masculin portugais. 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 João and joue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. João and joue follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
João
4 ch
joue

Look-alike desk: João vs joue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: João is \ʒo.ɑ̃\ while joue is \ʒu\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42540, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

João is recorded at frequency rank #41,851, classified as aname, pronounced \ʒo.ɑ̃\. 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 42540, this pair ranks #224,812 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of João vs joue

Shared letters: jo. Private to "João": ã. Private to "joue": eu.

"João" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "joue" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • jouejjoue · joeu · juoe · ojue

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "João" and "joue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "João" is a name and "joue" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "João" or "joue"?
"joue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #689 in our French list, against #41,851 for "João". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "João" and "joue" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "João" 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 #224,812 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "João" and "joue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "João 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 #224,812 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