vai
\ʋɑi̯\
The verdict
“vai” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #45,367) as a conjunction. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #45,367
- frequency rank, French
- 2,061
- “V” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ou, ou bien.
Corpus desk
Index FR-vai · vai · French
vai · rank #45,367 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #45,367
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,061
- PHOTO-FINISH uninominal
Nearest frequency peer: uninominal (-1 rank slots)
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “vai”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- twenty
twenty
54,637 corpus weight
- téléchargée
téléchargée
54,636 corpus weight
- uninominal
uninominal
54,635 corpus weight
- vai
vai
54,634 corpus weight
- veillées
veillées
54,632 corpus weight
- vergetures
vergetures
54,631 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “vai” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | vai |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Conjunction |
| IPA | \ʋɑi̯\ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #45,367 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Où “vai” se place dans la fréquence du français
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for vai is neighbouring look-alikes ("vu", "vi", …), not just typos; it is aconjunction pronounced \ʋɑi̯\. Frequency #45,367 among 2,061 “V” headwords. 3 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for vai, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "vu", "vi", "vs", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is vai, spelled V-A-I.
Definition
- 1Ou, ou bien.
- 2Ou bien, ou quoi.
- 3Divers. Utilisé comme particule de dialogue.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how vai appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Haluatko kahvia vai teetä?
Onko se mies pitkä vai lyhtyt?
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "vai"?
What does "vai" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "vai"?
How do you pronounce "vai"?
What language does "vai" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "vai", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
You've looked up "vai". Here's where to go from here.
- "vai" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "vu". View pair
- Usage frequency rank #45,367 among French headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more French words in the "V" letter cohort. V–Z browse
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.