Which to use
“joua” and “jouis” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,916
- “joua” frequency rank
- #36,019
- “jouis” frequency rank
- 59935
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | joua | jouis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de jouer. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de jouir. |
Where the eye mixes joua and jouis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. joua runs 4 letters (CVVV) against jouis's 5 (CVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between joua and jouis
A purely visual mix-up. joua (\ʒwa\) and jouis (\ʒwi\) 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 59935, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
joua is recorded at frequency rank #23,916, classified as averb, pronounced \ʒwa\. jouis is at rank #36,019, 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 59935, this pair ranks #100,368 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of joua vs jouis
Shared letters: jou. Private to "joua": a. Private to "jouis": is.
"joua" · 4 letters · shape CVVV · "jouis" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "joua" and "jouis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "joua" vs "jouis" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "joua" and "jouis" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "joua" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "jouis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #100,368 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "joua" and "jouis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Josie vs jouis". 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 #100,368 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.