vs

\vɛʁ.sys\

/\vɛʁ.sys\/ prep

The verdict

“vs” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #4,456) as a preposition. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#4,456
frequency rank, French
2,061
“V” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Versus. Contre, par opposition à.

Corpus desk

Index FR-vs · vs · French

vs · rank #4,456 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #4,456
  • LEN-SHORT 2 letters
  • VOW-0 0 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,061
  • PHOTO-FINISH voisine

Nearest frequency peer: voisine (-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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « vs »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « vs » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

vs vs vu
50% similar
vs vs VW
0% similar
vs vs VT
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for vs
PropertyValue
Headwordvs
LanguageFrench
Part of speechPreposition
IPA\vɛʁ.sys\
Letters2
Frequency rank#4,456
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « vs »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.vsse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « voisine » (#4,455), « vocation » (#4,454), « accorder » (#4,458). Parmi 2,061 lemmes en « V », « vs » est au #4,456. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for vs is neighbouring look-alikes ("vu", "VW", …), not just typos; it is apreposition pronounced \vɛʁ.sys\. Frequency #4,456 among 2,061 “V” headwords. Gloss: "Versus. Contre, par opposition à.".

No misspelling variants are generated for vs in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "vu", "VW", "VT", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is vs, spelled V-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Versus. Contre, par opposition à.

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 "vs"?
"vs" is spelled V-S. The IPA pronunciation is \vɛʁ.sys\.
What does "vs" mean?
As a preposition, "vs" means: Versus. Contre, par opposition à.
What words are commonly confused with "vs"?
"vs" is commonly confused with "vu", "VW", "VT". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "vs"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "vs" is \vɛʁ.sys\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "vs" come from?
"vs" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list