oeufsvsoursWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,534
“oeufs” frequency rank
#4,358
“ours” frequency rank
10892
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature oeufs ours
Definition Pluriel de oeuf. Plantigrade, carnassier ou omnivore, à fourrure épaisse, de la famille des ursidés.

Where the eye mixes oeufs and ours

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. oeufs runs 5 letters (VVVCC) against ours's 4 (VVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
oeufs
4 ch
ours

Visual trap between oeufs and ours

A purely visual mix-up. oeufs (\ø\) and ours (\uʁs\) 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 10892, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

oeufs is recorded at frequency rank #6,534, classified as anoun, pronounced \ø\. ours is at rank #4,358, tagged as anoun, pronounced \uʁs\.

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 10892, this pair ranks #411,265 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of oeufs vs ours

Shared letters: osu. Private to "oeufs": ef. Private to "ours": r.

"oeufs" · 5 letters · shape VVVCC  ·  "ours" · 4 letters · shape VVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • oeufseoufs · oefus · oeuffs · oeufss · oeusf · ouefs
  • oursorus · ourrs · ourss · ousr · uors

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "oeufs" and "ours" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ø\ versus \uʁs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "oeufs" vs "ours" - which ranks higher?
"ours" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,358 in our French list, against #6,534 for "oeufs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "oeufs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #411,265 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "oeufs" and "ours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ours vs outrés". 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 #411,265 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