joievsjoiesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,820
“joie” frequency rank
#11,605
“joies” frequency rank
13425
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature joie joies
Definition Sentiment de bonheur, de satisfaction vive et intense qui vient du plaisir que l'on a à agir, à accomplir non pas une tâche répétitive, mais de contribuer à un certain progrès qui est empreint d'un caractère spirituel philosophique, scientifique, religieux ou esthétique. Pluriel de joie.

Same sound, different letters: joie vs joies

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. joie runs 4 letters (CVVV) against joies's 5 (CVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
joie
5 ch
joies

Same sound, different spelling - joie / joies

This is the hard kind. joie and joies are pronounced identically (\ʒwa\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “joie” sits inside “joies”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13425, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

joie is recorded at frequency rank #1,820, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʒwa\. joies is at rank #11,605, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʒwa\.

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 13425, this pair ranks #401,094 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of joie vs joies

Shared letters: eijo. Private to "joie": -. Private to "joies": s.

"joie" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "joies" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • joiejioe · jjoie · joei · ojie
  • joiesjioes · jjoies · joeis · joiess · joise · ojies

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "joie" for "joies" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ʒwa\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "joie" or "joies"?
"joie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,820 in our French list, against #11,605 for "joies". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

"joie" and "joies" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "joie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "joies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #401,094 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "joie" and "joies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "joies vs Josie". 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 #401,094 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