Which to use
“joue” and “joug” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #689
- “joue” frequency rank
- #19,570
- “joug” frequency rank
- 20259
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | joue | joug |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Pièce de bois que l’on pose sur l’échine des bœufs ou autres animaux de trait et avec laquelle ils sont attelés pour tirer un chariot ou une charrue. |
Same sound, different letters: joue vs joug
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters.
Homophone desk: joue vs joug
This is the hard kind. joue and joug are pronounced identically (\ʒu\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - e in “joue” becomes g in “joug”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20259, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
joue is recorded at frequency rank #689, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʒu\. joug is at rank #19,570, 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 20259, this pair ranks #369,188 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of joue vs joug
Shared letters: jou. Private to "joue": e. Private to "joug": g.
"joue" · 4 letters · shape CVVV · "joug" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "joue" for "joug" ever safe?
Which is more common, "joue" or "joug"?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "joue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "joug" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #369,188 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "joue" and "joug" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "jor vs joug". 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 #369,188 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.