jouéevsjoursConfusable pair

Which to use

“jouée” and “jours” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#13,198
“jouée” frequency rank
#183
“jours” frequency rank
13381
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature jouée jours
Definition Paroi latérale d'une lucarne. Pluriel de jour.

Where the eye mixes jouée and jours

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. jouée (CVVVV) and jours (CVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
jouée
5 ch
jours

Look-alike desk: jouée vs jours

A purely visual mix-up. jouée (\ʒwe\) and jours (\ʒuʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13381, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

jouée is recorded at frequency rank #13,198, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʒwe\. 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 13381, this pair ranks #401,254 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of jouée vs jours

Shared letters: jou. Private to "jouée": . Private to "jours": rs.

"jouée" · 5 letters · shape CVVVV  ·  "jours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • joursjjours · jorus · jourrs · jourss · jousr · juors · ojurs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "jouée" for "jours" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʒwe\ versus \ʒuʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "jouée" or "jours"?
"jours" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #183 in our French list, against #13,198 for "jouée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "jouée" 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 #401,254 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "jouée" and "jours" 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 #401,254 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list