vocal vs voll, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“vocal” is a noun and “voll” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,942
“vocal” frequency rank: #591
“voll” frequency rank: 41533
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	vocal	voll
Definition	der Vokal, der Selbstlaut	mit etwas so vollständig gefüllt, dass absolut nichts mehr hinein passt oder hinein darf oder hinein gehört

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set vocal and voll apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

vocal

4 ch

voll

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vocal is [buˈkaɫ] while voll is [fɔl]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41533, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vocal is recorded at frequency rank #40,942, classified as anoun, pronounced [buˈkaɫ]. voll is at rank #591, tagged as anadj, pronounced [fɔl].

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 41533, this pair ranks #1,476,580 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vocal vs voll

Shared letters: lov. Private to "vocal": ac. Private to "voll": -.

"vocal" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "voll" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

vocal ← ovcal · vcoal · voacl · vocall · voccal · vocla · vvocal
voll ← ovll · vlol · vvoll

Frequency comparison

vocal#40,942

voll#591

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vocal" and "voll" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vocal" is a noun and "voll" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "vocal" or "voll"?

"voll" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #591 in our German list, against #40,942 for "vocal". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering vocal vs voll

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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