votavsvousConfusable pair

Quick tell: vota is a verb, vous is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“vota” is a verb and “vous” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,211
“vota” frequency rank
#37
“vous” frequency rank
43248
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vota vous
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de voter. Pronom clitique ou tonique de la deuxième personne du pluriel sujet, lorsque l’interlocuteur s’adresse à plusieurs autres personnes.

Where the eye mixes vota and vous

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. vota (CVCV) and vous (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
vota
4 ch
vous

Why the eye confuses vota with vous

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vota is \vɔ.ta\ while vous is \vu\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43248, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vota is recorded at frequency rank #43,211, classified as averb, pronounced \vɔ.ta\. 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 43248, this pair ranks #219,545 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vota vs vous

Shared letters: ov. Private to "vota": at. Private to "vous": su.

"vota" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "vous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vota ← ovta · voat · votta · vtoa · vvota
  • vous ← ovus · vosu · vouss · vuos · vvous

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vota" and "vous" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vota" is a verb and "vous" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "vota" vs "vous" - which ranks higher?
"vous" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37 in our French list, against #43,211 for "vota". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "vota" 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 #219,545 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vota" and "vous" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vota vs voy". 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 #219,545 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