vous vs voy, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#37
“vous” frequency rank: #48,860
“voy” frequency rank: 48897
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	vous	voy
Definition	Pronom clitique ou tonique de la deuxième personne du pluriel sujet, lorsque l’interlocuteur s’adresse à plusieurs autres personnes.	Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif du verbe irrégulier ir (« aller »).

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set vous and voy apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

vous

3 ch

voy

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vous is \vu\ while voy is \ˈboj\. 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 (pronoun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48897, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vous is recorded at frequency rank #37, classified as apron, pronounced \vu\. voy is at rank #48,860, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈboj\.

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 48897, this pair ranks #175,160 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vous vs voy

Shared letters: ov. Private to "vous": su. Private to "voy": y.

"vous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "voy" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

vous ← ovus · vosu · vouss · vuos · vvous

Frequency comparison

vous#37

voy#48,860

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vous" and "voy" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vous" is a pronoun and "voy" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "vous" or "voy"?

"vous" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37 in our French list, against #48,860 for "voy". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering vous vs voy

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a pronoun, it's “vous”; for a verb, it's “voy”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “vous” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable