vécuesvsveufsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“vécues” and “veufs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#23,734
“vécues” frequency rank
#45,941
“veufs” frequency rank
69675
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vécues veufs
Definition Féminin pluriel de vécu. Masculin pluriel de veuf.

Where the eye mixes vécues and veufs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. vécues runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against veufs's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
vécues
5 ch
veufs

Why the eye confuses vécues with veufs

A purely visual mix-up. vécues (\ve.ky\) and veufs (\vœf\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69675, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vécues is recorded at frequency rank #23,734, classified as anadj, pronounced \ve.ky\. veufs is at rank #45,941, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vœf\.

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 69675, this pair ranks #54,264 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vécues vs veufs

Shared letters: esuv. Private to "vécues": cé. Private to "veufs": f.

"vécues" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "veufs" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • veufs ← evufs · vefus · veuffs · veufss · veusf · vuefs · vveufs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vécues" for "veufs" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ve.ky\ versus \vœf\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "vécues" or "veufs" show up more?
"vécues" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,734 in our French list, against #45,941 for "veufs". 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 "vécues" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "veufs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #54,264 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vécues" and "veufs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ves vs veufs". 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 #54,264 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