valevsvasTell them apart

Which to use

“vale” and “vas” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#27,280
“vale” frequency rank
#593
“vas” frequency rank
27873
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vale vas
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de valer. Deuxième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de aller.

Where the eye mixes vale and vas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
vale
3 ch
vas

Why the eye confuses vale with vas

A purely visual mix-up. vale (\val\) and vas (\va\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27873, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vale is recorded at frequency rank #27,280, classified as averb, pronounced \val\. vas is at rank #593, tagged as averb, pronounced \va\.

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 27873, this pair ranks #326,239 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vale vs vas

Shared letters: av. Private to "vale": el. Private to "vas": s.

"vale" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "vas" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • valeavle · vael · vlae · vvale

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vale" and "vas" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\val\ versus \va\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "vale" vs "vas" - which ranks higher?
"vas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #593 in our French list, against #27,280 for "vale". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "vale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #326,239 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vale" and "vas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vale vs vial". 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 #326,239 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