Which to use
“vos” is a determiner and “vous” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #207
- “vos” frequency rank
- #37
- “vous” frequency rank
- 244
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vos | vous |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Pronom clitique ou tonique de la deuxième personne du pluriel sujet, lorsque l’interlocuteur s’adresse à plusieurs autres personnes. |
Where the eye mixes vos and vous
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between vos and vous
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vos is \vo\ while vous is \vu\. 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 pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 244, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vos is recorded at frequency rank #207, classified as adet, pronounced \vo\. vous is at rank #37, tagged as apron, pronounced \vu\.
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 244, this pair ranks #439,916 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of vos vs vous
Shared letters: osv. Private to "vos": -. Private to "vous": u.
"vos" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "vous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- vous ← ovus · vosu · vouss · vuos · vvous
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "vos" for "vous" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "vos" or "vous" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "vos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "vous" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #439,916 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vos" and "vous" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "viv vs vos". 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 #439,916 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.