vacantsvsvotantsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: vacants is a adjective, votants is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#20,310
“vacants” frequency rank
#13,295
“votants” frequency rank
33605
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vacants votants
Definition Masculin pluriel de vacant. Pluriel de votant.

Where the eye mixes vacants and votants

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. vacants and votants follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
vacants
7 ch
votants

Look-alike desk: vacants vs votants

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vacants is \va.kɑ̃\ while votants is \vɔ.tɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33605, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vacants is recorded at frequency rank #20,310, classified as anadj, pronounced \va.kɑ̃\. votants is at rank #13,295, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vɔ.tɑ̃\.

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 33605, this pair ranks #289,499 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vacants vs votants

Shared letters: anstv. Private to "vacants": c. Private to "votants": o.

"vacants" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC  ·  "votants" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vacantsavcants · vaacnts · vacannts · vacanst · vacantss · vacantts · vacatns · vaccants
  • votantsovtants · voatnts · votannts · votanst · votantss · votantts · votatns · votnats

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vacants" for "votants" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vacants" is an adjective and "votants" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "vacants" or "votants" show up more?
"votants" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,295 in our French list, against #20,310 for "vacants". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vacants" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "votants" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #289,499 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vacants" and "votants" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vacante vs vacants". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #289,499 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