whovswoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: who is a pronoun, wo is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“who” is a pronoun and “wo” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,100
“who” frequency rank
#25,171
“wo” frequency rank
34271
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature who wo
Definition Qui. Interjection indiquant de la désapprobation.

Where the eye mixes who and wo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
who
2 ch
wo

Why the eye confuses who with wo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: who is \ˈhu\ while wo is \wo\. 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 intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34271, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

who is recorded at frequency rank #9,100, classified as apron, pronounced \ˈhu\. wo is at rank #25,171, tagged as anintj, pronounced \wo\.

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 34271, this pair ranks #284,989 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of who vs wo

Shared letters: ow. Private to "who": h. Private to "wo": -.

"who" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "wo" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "who" and "wo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "who" is a pronoun and "wo" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "who" or "wo"?
"who" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,100 in our French list, against #25,171 for "wo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "who" and "wo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "who" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #284,989 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "who" and "wo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "waw vs wo". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #284,989 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