Which to use
“open” is an adjective and “oyez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,628
- “open” frequency rank
- #39,920
- “oyez” frequency rank
- 43548
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | open | oyez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ouvert (d’esprit). | Deuxième personne de l’indicatif présent du verbe ouïr. |
Where the eye mixes open and oyez
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. open (VCVC) and oyez (VVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: open vs oyez
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: open is \ɔ.pœn\ while oyez is \ɔ.je\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43548, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
open is recorded at frequency rank #3,628, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɔ.pœn\. oyez is at rank #39,920, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɔ.je\.
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 43548, this pair ranks #217,224 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of open vs oyez
Shared letters: eo. Private to "open": np. Private to "oyez": yz.
"open" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "oyez" · 4 letters · shape VVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "open" and "oyez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "open" or "oyez"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "open" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "oyez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #217,224 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "open" and "oyez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ones vs oyez". 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 #217,224 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.