vêtuevsvêtuesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#18,624
“vêtue” frequency rank
#42,121
“vêtues” frequency rank
60745
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vêtue vêtues
Definition Féminin singulier de vêtu. Féminin pluriel de vêtu.

Same sound, different letters: vêtue vs vêtues

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. vêtue runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against vêtues's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
vêtue
6 ch
vêtues

Same sound, different spelling - vêtue / vêtues

This is the hard kind. vêtue and vêtues are pronounced identically (\vɛ.ty\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “vêtue” sits inside “vêtues”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60745, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vêtue is recorded at frequency rank #18,624, classified as anadj, pronounced \vɛ.ty\. vêtues is at rank #42,121, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vɛ.ty\.

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 60745, this pair ranks #95,979 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vêtue vs vêtues

Shared letters: etuvê. Private to "vêtue": -. Private to "vêtues": s.

"vêtue" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "vêtues" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "vêtue" and "vêtues" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\vɛ.ty\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "vêtue" or "vêtues" show up more?
"vêtue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,624 in our French list, against #42,121 for "vêtues". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"vêtue" and "vêtues" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vêtue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vêtues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #95,979 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vêtue" and "vêtues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vêtues vs veufs". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #95,979 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