jouesvsjoutesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,471
“joues” frequency rank
#31,570
“joutes” frequency rank
37041
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature joues joutes
Definition Pluriel de joue. Pluriel de joute.

Where the eye mixes joues and joutes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
joues
6 ch
joutes

Visual trap between joues and joutes

A purely visual mix-up. joues (\ʒu\) and joutes (\ʒut\) 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 37041, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

joues is recorded at frequency rank #5,471, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʒu\. joutes is at rank #31,570, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʒut\.

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 37041, this pair ranks #265,303 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of joues vs joutes

Shared letters: ejosu. Private to "joues": -. Private to "joutes": t.

"joues" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "joutes" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • jouesjjoues · joeus · jouess · jouse · juoes · ojues
  • joutesjjoutes · jotues · joutess · joutse · jouttes · juotes · ojutes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "joues" for "joutes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʒu\ versus \ʒut\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "joues" or "joutes"?
"joues" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,471 in our French list, against #31,570 for "joutes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "joues" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "joutes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #265,303 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "joues" and "joutes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "joutes vs jouxte". 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 #265,303 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