Which to use
“ouh” and “oulah” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,618
- “ouh” frequency rank
- #47,492
- “oulah” frequency rank
- 67110
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ouh | oulah |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cri de douleur. → voir ouille | Exclamation de colère, d’irritation ou de surprise. |
Where the eye mixes ouh and oulah
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. ouh runs 3 letters (VVC) against oulah's 5 (VVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between ouh and oulah
A purely visual mix-up. ouh (\u\) and oulah (\u.la\) 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 67110, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ouh is recorded at frequency rank #19,618, classified as anintj, pronounced \u\. oulah is at rank #47,492, tagged as anintj, pronounced \u.la\.
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 67110, this pair ranks #64,853 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ouh vs oulah
Shared letters: hou. Private to "ouh": -. Private to "oulah": al.
"ouh" · 3 letters · shape VVC · "oulah" · 5 letters · shape VVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- oulah ← oluah · oualh · oulahh · oulha · oullah · uolah
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ouh" for "oulah" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "ouh" or "oulah" show up more?
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 "ouh" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "oulah" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #64,853 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ouh" and "oulah" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oulah vs oulala". 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 #64,853 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.