veufsvsvouésWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#45,941
“veufs” frequency rank
#32,638
“voués” frequency rank
78579
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature veufs voués
Definition Masculin pluriel de veuf. Masculin pluriel de voué.

Where the eye mixes veufs and voués

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

5 ch
veufs
5 ch
voués

Look-alike desk: veufs vs voués

A purely visual mix-up. veufs (\vœf\) and voués (\vwe\) 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 78579, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

veufs is recorded at frequency rank #45,941, classified as anadj, pronounced \vœf\. voués is at rank #32,638, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vwe\.

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 78579, this pair ranks #25,385 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of veufs vs voués

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

"veufs" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "voués" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "veufs" for "voués" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\vœf\ versus \vwe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "veufs" or "voués"?
"voués" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,638 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "veufs" and "voués" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "veufs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "voués" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,385 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "veufs" and "voués" 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 #25,385 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