vécusvsveufsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#24,439
“vécus” frequency rank
#45,941
“veufs” frequency rank
70380
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vécus veufs
Definition Masculin pluriel de vécu. Masculin pluriel de veuf.

Where the eye mixes vécus and veufs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. vécus (CVCVC) and veufs (CVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
vécus
5 ch
veufs

Visual trap between vécus and veufs

A purely visual mix-up. vécus (\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 share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70380, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vécus is recorded at frequency rank #24,439, 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 70380, this pair ranks #51,516 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vécus vs veufs

Shared letters: suv. Private to "vécus": . Private to "veufs": ef.

"vécus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "veufs" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • veufsevufs · vefus · veuffs · veufss · veusf · vuefs · vveufs

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vécus" and "veufs" be used interchangeably?
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.
Which is more common, "vécus" or "veufs"?
"vécus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,439 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.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vécus" 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 #51,516 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vécus" 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 #51,516 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