valuvsvuTell them apart

Quick tell: valu is a verb, vu is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“valu” is a verb and “vu” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,256
“valu” frequency rank
#156
“vu” frequency rank
10412
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature valu vu
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de valoir. Ce qui est exposé sur les productions respectives, les pièces, les raisons qui sont énoncées avant le dispositif.

Where the eye mixes valu and vu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
valu
2 ch
vu

Visual trap between valu and vu

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: valu is \va.ly\ while vu is \vy\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10412, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

valu is recorded at frequency rank #10,256, classified as averb, pronounced \va.ly\. vu is at rank #156, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vy\.

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 10412, this pair ranks #413,097 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of valu vs vu

Shared letters: uv. Private to "valu": al. Private to "vu": -.

"valu" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "vu" · 2 letters · shape CV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • valuavlu · vallu · vaul · vlau · vvalu

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "valu" and "vu" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "valu" is a verb and "vu" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "valu" or "vu" show up more?
"vu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #156 in our French list, against #10,256 for "valu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "valu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #413,097 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "valu" and "vu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "valu vs vial". 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 #413,097 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