villevsvollerWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ville is a noun, voller is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ville” is a noun and “voller” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,847
“ville” frequency rank
#1,310
“voller” frequency rank
34157
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ville voller
Definition Stadt, Ort angefüllt mit; mit sehr viel

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set ville and voller apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
ville
6 ch
voller

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ville is [vil] while voller is [ˈfɔlɐ]. 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 (noun vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34157, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ville is recorded at frequency rank #32,847, classified as anoun, pronounced [vil]. voller is at rank #1,310, tagged as aprep, pronounced [ˈfɔlɐ].

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 34157, this pair ranks #1,669,805 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ville vs voller

Shared letters: elv. Private to "ville": i. Private to "voller": or.

"ville" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "voller" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • villeivlle · vilel · vlile · vville
  • vollerovller · vloler · volelr · voler · vollerr · vollre · vvoller

Frequency comparison

ville#32,847
voller#1,310

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ville" and "voller" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ville" is a noun and "voller" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ville" or "voller"?
"voller" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,310 in our German list, against #32,847 for "ville". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering ville vs voller

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list