joursvsjouteConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#183
“jours” frequency rank
#31,569
“joute” frequency rank
31752
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature jours joute
Definition Pluriel de jour. Combat à cheval d'homme à homme avec la lance.

Where the eye mixes jours and joute

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
jours
5 ch
joute

Visual trap between jours and joute

A purely visual mix-up. jours (\ʒuʁ\) and joute (\ʒut\) 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 31752, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

jours is recorded at frequency rank #183, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʒuʁ\. joute is at rank #31,569, 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 31752, this pair ranks #301,779 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of jours vs joute

Shared letters: jou. Private to "jours": rs. Private to "joute": et.

"jours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "joute" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • joursjjours · jorus · jourrs · jourss · jousr · juors · ojurs
  • joutejjoute · jotue · joutte · juote · ojute

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "jours" and "joute" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʒuʁ\ versus \ʒut\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "jours" or "joute"?
"jours" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #183 in our French list, against #31,569 for "joute". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "jours" and "joute" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "jours" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "joute" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #301,779 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "jours" and "joute" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Josie vs joute". 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 #301,779 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