vouésvsvoulusTell them apart

Which to use

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

#32,638
“voués” frequency rank
#32,237
“voulus” frequency rank
64875
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature voués voulus
Definition Masculin pluriel de voué. Masculin pluriel de voulu.

Where the eye mixes voués and voulus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. voués runs 5 letters (CVVVC) against voulus's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
voués
6 ch
voulus

Why the eye confuses voués with voulus

A purely visual mix-up. voués (\vwe\) and voulus (\vu.ly\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64875, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

voués is recorded at frequency rank #32,638, classified as anadj, pronounced \vwe\. voulus is at rank #32,237, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vu.ly\.

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 64875, this pair ranks #74,950 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of voués vs voulus

Shared letters: osuv. Private to "voués": é. Private to "voulus": l.

"voués" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "voulus" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • voulus ← ovulus · voluus · voullus · voulsu · vouluss · vouuls · vuolus · vvoulus

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "voués" for "voulus" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\vwe\ versus \vu.ly\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "voués" vs "voulus" - which ranks higher?
"voulus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,237 in our French list, against #32,638 for "voués". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "voués" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "voulus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #74,950 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "voués" and "voulus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "voués 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 #74,950 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