Which to use
“voulu” is a verb and “voulues” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #930
- “voulu” frequency rank
- #41,070
- “voulues” frequency rank
- 42000
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | voulu | voulues |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe vouloir. | Féminin pluriel de voulu. |
Same sound, different letters: voulu vs voulues
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. voulu runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against voulues's 7 (CVVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: voulu vs voulues
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: voulu and voulues carry the same recorded pronunciation, \vu.ly\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “voulu” sits inside “voulues”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42000, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
voulu is recorded at frequency rank #930, classified as averb, pronounced \vu.ly\. voulues is at rank #41,070, 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 42000, this pair ranks #228,956 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of voulu vs voulues
Shared letters: louv. Private to "voulu": -. Private to "voulues": es.
"voulu" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "voulues" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "voulu" for "voulues" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "voulu" or "voulues" show up more?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "voulu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "voulues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #228,956 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "voulu" and "voulues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vouées vs voulues". 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 #228,956 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.