Which to use
“valait” and “volait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,386
- “valait” frequency rank
- #29,595
- “volait” frequency rank
- 36981
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | valait | volait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de valoir. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de voler. |
Where the eye mixes valait and volait
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. valait and volait follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between valait and volait
A purely visual mix-up. valait (\va.lɛ\) and volait (\vɔ.lɛ\) 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 a single letter - a in “valait” becomes o in “volait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36981, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
valait is recorded at frequency rank #7,386, classified as averb, pronounced \va.lɛ\. volait is at rank #29,595, tagged as averb, pronounced \vɔ.lɛ\.
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 36981, this pair ranks #265,743 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of valait vs volait
Shared letters: ailtv. Private to "valait": -. Private to "volait": o.
"valait" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "volait" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "valait" for "volait" ever safe?
Which is more common, "valait" or "volait"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "valait" and "volait" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "valait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "volait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #265,743 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "valait" and "volait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "violait vs volait". 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 #265,743 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.