joursvsjusTell them apart

Which to use

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

#183
“jours” frequency rank
#3,768
“jus” frequency rank
3951
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature jours jus
Definition Pluriel de jour. Solution aqueuse obtenue à partir d’un produit solide par pression, coction, infusion ou tout autre moyen.

Where the eye mixes jours and jus

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

5 ch
jours
3 ch
jus

Why the eye confuses jours with jus

A purely visual mix-up. jours (\ʒuʁ\) and jus (\ʒy\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3951, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

jours is recorded at frequency rank #183, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʒuʁ\. jus is at rank #3,768, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʒy\.

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 3951, this pair ranks #432,819 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of jours vs jus

Shared letters: jsu. Private to "jours": or. Private to "jus": -.

"jours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "jus" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "jours" and "jus" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʒuʁ\ versus \ʒy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "jours" or "jus" show up more?
"jours" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #183 in our French list, against #3,768 for "jus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "jours" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "jus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #432,819 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "jours" and "jus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "jor vs jus". 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 #432,819 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