veufvsvuTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#22,134
“veuf” frequency rank
#156
“vu” frequency rank
22290
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature veuf vu
Definition Qui est privé de. Ce qui est exposé sur les productions respectives, les pièces, les raisons qui sont énoncées avant le dispositif.

Where the eye mixes veuf and vu

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

4 ch
veuf
2 ch
vu

Visual trap between veuf and vu

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: veuf is \vœf\ 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22290, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

veuf is recorded at frequency rank #22,134, classified as anadj, pronounced \vœf\. 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 22290, this pair ranks #358,795 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of veuf vs vu

Shared letters: uv. Private to "veuf": ef. Private to "vu": -.

"veuf" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "vu" · 2 letters · shape CV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • veufevuf · vefu · veuff · vuef · vveuf

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "veuf" for "vu" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "veuf" is an adjective and "vu" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "veuf" or "vu"?
"vu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #156 in our French list, against #22,134 for "veuf". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "veuf" 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 #358,795 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "veuf" and "vu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "veuf vs voui". 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 #358,795 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