vuvsvusWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: vu is a noun, vus is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“vu” is a noun and “vus” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#156
“vu” frequency rank
#5,090
“vus” frequency rank
5246
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vu vus
Definition Ce qui est exposé sur les productions respectives, les pièces, les raisons qui sont énoncées avant le dispositif. Participe passé masculin pluriel de voir.

Same sound, different letters: vu vs vus

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 2 letters.

2 ch
vu
3 ch
vus

Same sound, different spelling - vu / vus

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: vu and vus carry the same recorded pronunciation, \vy\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “vu” sits inside “vus”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5246, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vu is recorded at frequency rank #156, classified as anoun, pronounced \vy\. vus is at rank #5,090, tagged as averb, pronounced \vy\.

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 5246, this pair ranks #429,539 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vu vs vus

Shared letters: uv. Private to "vu": -. Private to "vus": s.

"vu" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "vus" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vu" for "vus" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vu" is a noun and "vus" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "vu" or "vus" show up more?
"vu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #156 in our French list, against #5,090 for "vus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

"vu" and "vus" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #429,539 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vu" and "vus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "viv vs vus". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #429,539 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