vaincrevsvaincusWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: vaincre is a verb, vaincus is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“vaincre” is a verb and “vaincus” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,767
“vaincre” frequency rank
#18,901
“vaincus” frequency rank
25668
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vaincre vaincus
Definition Remporter la victoire sur un ennemi, sur un rival, sur un concurrent. Masculin pluriel de vaincu.

Where the eye mixes vaincre and vaincus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. vaincre (CVVCCCV) and vaincus (CVVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
vaincre
7 ch
vaincus

Look-alike desk: vaincre vs vaincus

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vaincre is \vɛ̃kʁ\ while vaincus is \vɛ̃.ky\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25668, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vaincre is recorded at frequency rank #6,767, classified as averb, pronounced \vɛ̃kʁ\. vaincus is at rank #18,901, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vɛ̃.ky\.

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 25668, this pair ranks #339,542 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vaincre vs vaincus

Shared letters: acinv. Private to "vaincre": er. Private to "vaincus": su.

"vaincre" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV  ·  "vaincus" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vaincre ← avincre · vaicnre · vainccre · vaincer · vaincrre · vainncre · vainrce · vanicre
  • vaincus ← avincus · vaicnus · vainccus · vaincsu · vaincuss · vainncus · vainucs · vanicus

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vaincre" and "vaincus" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vaincre" is a verb and "vaincus" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "vaincre" or "vaincus"?
"vaincre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,767 in our French list, against #18,901 for "vaincus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "vaincre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vaincus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #339,542 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vaincre" and "vaincus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vaincra vs vaincus". 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 #339,542 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