jou vs joui, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#38,878
“jou” frequency rank: #30,676
“joui” frequency rank: 69554
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	jou	joui
Definition	Pronom personnel objet de la deuxième personne du singulier : te.	Participe passé masculin singulier de jouir.

Where the spellings diverge

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

3 ch

jou

4 ch

joui

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: jou is apronoun and jouiaverb. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “jou” sits inside “joui”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69554, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

jou is recorded at frequency rank #38,878, classified as apron. joui is at rank #30,676, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʒwi\.

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 69554, this pair ranks #54,654 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of jou vs joui

Shared letters: jou. Private to "jou": -. Private to "joui": i.

"jou" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "joui" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

joui ← jjoui · joiu · juoi · ojui

Frequency comparison

jou#38,878

joui#30,676

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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

"joui" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,676 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 joui

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a pronoun, it's “jou”; for a verb, it's “joui”.
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