venuvsvontWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,306
“venu” frequency rank
#357
“vont” frequency rank
1663
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature venu vont
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de venir. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de aller.

Where the eye mixes venu and vont

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

4 ch
venu
4 ch
vont

Look-alike desk: venu vs vont

A purely visual mix-up. venu (\və.ny\) and vont (\vɔ̃\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1663, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

venu is recorded at frequency rank #1,306, classified as averb, pronounced \və.ny\. vont is at rank #357, tagged as averb, pronounced \vɔ̃\.

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 1663, this pair ranks #437,613 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of venu vs vont

Shared letters: nv. Private to "venu": eu. Private to "vont": ot.

"venu" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "vont" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • venuevnu · vennu · veun · vneu · vvenu
  • vontovnt · vnot · vonnt · vontt · votn · vvont

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "venu" for "vont" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\və.ny\ versus \vɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "venu" or "vont"?
"vont" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #357 in our French list, against #1,306 for "venu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "venu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vont" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #437,613 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "venu" and "vont" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "venu vs Viau". 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 #437,613 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