Which to use
“joue” and “jouée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #689
- “joue” frequency rank
- #13,198
- “jouée” frequency rank
- 13887
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | joue | jouée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie du visage de l’humain qui est au-dessous des tempes et des yeux, et qui s’étend de chaque côté du nez jusqu’au menton dont la peau ferme latéralement la bouche. | Paroi latérale d'une lucarne. |
Where the eye mixes joue and jouée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. joue runs 4 letters (CVVV) against jouée's 5 (CVVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses joue with jouée
A purely visual mix-up. joue (\ʒu\) and jouée (\ʒwe\) 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 13887, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
joue is recorded at frequency rank #689, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʒu\. jouée is at rank #13,198, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʒwe\.
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 13887, this pair ranks #399,120 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of joue vs jouée
Shared letters: ejou. Private to "joue": -. Private to "jouée": é.
"joue" · 4 letters · shape CVVV · "jouée" · 5 letters · shape CVVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- joue ← jjoue · joeu · juoe · ojue
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "joue" and "jouée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "joue" or "jouée"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "joue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "jouée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #399,120 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "joue" and "jouée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Josie vs jouée". 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 #399,120 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.