jou vs joues, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“jou” is a pronoun and “joues” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,878
“jou” frequency rank: #5,471
“joues” frequency rank: 44349
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	jou	joues
Definition	Pronom personnel objet de la deuxième personne du singulier : te.	Pluriel de joue.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set jou and joues apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

jou

5 ch

joues

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: jou is apronoun and jouesanoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “jou” sits inside “joues”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44349, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

jou is recorded at frequency rank #38,878, classified as apron. joues is at rank #5,471, 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 44349, this pair ranks #211,094 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of jou vs joues

Shared letters: jou. Private to "jou": -. Private to "joues": es.

"jou" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "joues" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

joues ← jjoues · joeus · jouess · jouse · juoes · ojues

Frequency comparison

jou#38,878

joues#5,471

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "jou" and "joues" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "jou" is a pronoun and "joues" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "jou" or "joues"?

"joues" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,471 in our French list, against #38,878 for "jou". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering jou vs joues

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a pronoun, it's “jou”; for a noun, it's “joues”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “jou” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable