Which to use
“vaillant” is an adjective and “veillait” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,261
- “vaillant” frequency rank
- #47,674
- “veillait” frequency rank
- 63935
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vaillant | veillait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui a de la vaillance, qui est courageux. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de veiller. |
Where the eye mixes vaillant and veillait
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. vaillant (CVVCCVCC) and veillait (CVVCCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between vaillant and veillait
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vaillant is \va.jɑ̃\ while veillait is \ve.jɛ\. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63935, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vaillant is recorded at frequency rank #16,261, classified as anadj, pronounced \va.jɑ̃\. veillait is at rank #47,674, tagged as averb, pronounced \ve.jɛ\.
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 63935, this pair ranks #79,450 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of vaillant vs veillait
Shared letters: ailtv. Private to "vaillant": n. Private to "veillait": e.
"vaillant" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC · "veillait" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "vaillant" for "veillait" ever safe?
Which is more common, "vaillant" or "veillait"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "vaillant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "veillait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #79,450 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vaillant" and "veillait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "veillait vs violait". 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 #79,450 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.