Which to use
“vais” and “venais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #219
- “vais” frequency rank
- #11,149
- “venais” frequency rank
- 11368
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vais | venais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de aller. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait du verbe venir. |
Where the eye mixes vais and venais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: vais vs venais
A purely visual mix-up. vais (\vɛ\) and venais (\və.nɛ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11368, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vais is recorded at frequency rank #219, classified as averb, pronounced \vɛ\. venais is at rank #11,149, tagged as averb, pronounced \və.nɛ\.
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 11368, this pair ranks #409,411 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of vais vs venais
Shared letters: aisv. Private to "vais": -. Private to "venais": en.
"vais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "venais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "vais" and "venais" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "vais" or "venais"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "vais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "venais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #409,411 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vais" and "venais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vegans vs venais". 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 #409,411 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.