Which to use
“oies” and “ours” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,412
- “oies” frequency rank
- #4,358
- “ours” frequency rank
- 25770
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | oies | ours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de oie. | Plantigrade, carnassier ou omnivore, à fourrure épaisse, de la famille des ursidés. |
Where the eye mixes oies and ours
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses oies with ours
A purely visual mix-up. oies (\wa\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25770, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
oies is recorded at frequency rank #21,412, classified as anoun, pronounced \wa\. 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 25770, this pair ranks #338,929 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of oies vs ours
Shared letters: os. Private to "oies": ei. Private to "ours": ru.
"oies" · 4 letters · shape VVVC · "ours" · 4 letters · shape VVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "oies" and "ours" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "oies" vs "ours" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "oies" 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 #338,929 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "oies" and "ours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oies vs oim". 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 #338,929 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.