joliesvsjoutesTell them apart

Quick tell: jolies is a adjective, joutes is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“jolies” is an adjective and “joutes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,408
“jolies” frequency rank
#31,570
“joutes” frequency rank
37978
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature jolies joutes
Definition Féminin pluriel de joli. Pluriel de joute.

Where the eye mixes jolies and joutes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
jolies
6 ch
joutes

Visual trap between jolies and joutes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: jolies is \ʒɔ.li\ while joutes is \ʒut\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37978, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

jolies is recorded at frequency rank #6,408, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʒɔ.li\. 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 37978, this pair ranks #258,593 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of jolies vs joutes

Shared letters: ejos. Private to "jolies": il. Private to "joutes": tu.

"jolies" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "joutes" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • joliesjjolies · jloies · joiles · joleis · joliess · jolise · jollies · ojlies
  • joutesjjoutes · jotues · joutess · joutse · jouttes · juotes · ojutes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "jolies" and "joutes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "jolies" is an adjective and "joutes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "jolies" vs "joutes" - which ranks higher?
"jolies" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,408 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

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "jolies" 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 #258,593 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "jolies" 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 #258,593 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