vouevsvouerTell them apart

Which to use

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

#28,020
“voue” frequency rank
#43,728
“vouer” frequency rank
71748
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature voue vouer
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de vouer. Promettre par vœu.

Where the eye mixes voue and vouer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. voue runs 4 letters (CVVV) against vouer's 5 (CVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
voue
5 ch
vouer

Why the eye confuses voue with vouer

A purely visual mix-up. voue (\vu\) and vouer (\vwe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “voue” sits inside “vouer”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71748, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

voue is recorded at frequency rank #28,020, classified as averb, pronounced \vu\. vouer is at rank #43,728, tagged as averb, 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 71748, this pair ranks #46,427 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of voue vs vouer

Shared letters: eouv. Private to "voue": -. Private to "vouer": r.

"voue" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "vouer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • voueovue · voeu · vuoe · vvoue
  • vouerovuer · voeur · vouerr · voure · vuoer · vvouer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "voue" for "vouer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\vu\ versus \vwe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "voue" vs "vouer" - which ranks higher?
"voue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,020 in our French list, against #43,728 for "vouer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "voue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vouer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,427 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "voue" and "vouer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vouer vs voûtée". 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 #46,427 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