joiesvsjoutesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#11,605
“joies” frequency rank
#31,570
“joutes” frequency rank
43175
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature joies joutes
Definition Pluriel de joie. Pluriel de joute.

Where the eye mixes joies and joutes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. joies runs 5 letters (CVVVC) against joutes's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
joies
6 ch
joutes

Visual trap between joies and joutes

A purely visual mix-up. joies (\ʒwa\) and joutes (\ʒut\) 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 43175, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

joies is recorded at frequency rank #11,605, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʒwa\. joutes is at rank #31,570, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʒut\.

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 43175, this pair ranks #220,080 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of joies vs joutes

Shared letters: ejos. Private to "joies": i. Private to "joutes": tu.

"joies" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "joutes" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • joiesjioes · jjoies · joeis · joiess · joise · ojies
  • joutesjjoutes · jotues · joutess · joutse · jouttes · juotes · ojutes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "joies" for "joutes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʒwa\ versus \ʒut\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "joies" or "joutes"?
"joies" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,605 in our French list, against #31,570 for "joutes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "joies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "joutes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #220,080 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "joies" and "joutes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "joutes vs jouxte". 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 #220,080 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