Which to use
“jou” is a pronoun and “jours” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,878
- “jou” frequency rank
- #183
- “jours” frequency rank
- 39061
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | jou | jours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pronom personnel objet de la deuxième personne du singulier : te. | Pluriel de jour. |
Letter map: jou vs jours
Shared letters muted; letters that set jou and jours apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. jou runs 3 letters (CVV) against jours's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - jou and jours
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: jou is apronoun and joursanoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “jou” sits inside “jours”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39061, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
jou is recorded at frequency rank #38,878, classified as apron. jours is at rank #183, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʒuʁ\.
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 39061, this pair ranks #250,797 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of jou vs jours
Shared letters: jou. Private to "jou": -. Private to "jours": rs.
"jou" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "jours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- jours ← jjours · jorus · jourrs · jourss · jousr · juors · ojurs
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "jou" for "jours" ever safe?
Frequency check: "jou" vs "jours" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pair "jou" vs "jours" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "jou" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "jours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #250,797 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "jou" and "jours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "jor vs jou". 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 #250,797 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.