vos vs voui, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“vos” is a determiner and “voui” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#207
“vos” frequency rank: #45,950
“voui” frequency rank: 46157
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	vos	voui
Definition	Qui sont à vous, qui vous appartiennent. Deuxième personne du pluriel. Plusieurs possesseurs et plusieurs objets, ou un seul possesseur (forme de politesse) et plusieurs objets.	Oui.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set vos and voui apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

vos

4 ch

voui

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vos is \vo\ while voui is \vwi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (determiner vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46157, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vos is recorded at frequency rank #207, classified as adet, pronounced \vo\. voui is at rank #45,950, tagged as anadv, pronounced \vwi\.

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 46157, this pair ranks #197,143 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vos vs voui

Shared letters: ov. Private to "vos": s. Private to "voui": iu.

"vos" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "voui" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

voui ← ovui · voiu · vuoi · vvoui

Frequency comparison

vos#207

voui#45,950

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vos" and "voui" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vos" is a determiner and "voui" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "vos" or "voui"?

"vos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #207 in our French list, against #45,950 for "voui". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering vos vs voui

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a determiner, it's “vos”; for an adverb, it's “voui”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “vos” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable