valevsVaulxConfusable pair

Quick tell: vale is a verb, Vaulx is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“vale” is a verb and “Vaulx” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,280
“vale” frequency rank
#38,592
“Vaulx” frequency rank
65872
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vale Vaulx
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de valer. Commune française, située dans le département du Pas-de-Calais.

Where the eye mixes vale and Vaulx

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. vale runs 4 letters (CVCV) against Vaulx's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
vale
5 ch
Vaulx

Visual trap between vale and Vaulx

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vale is \val\ while Vaulx is \vo\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65872, 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\. Vaulx is at rank #38,592, tagged as aname, pronounced \vo\.

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 65872, this pair ranks #70,400 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vale vs Vaulx

Shared letters: alv. Private to "vale": e. Private to "Vaulx": ux.

"vale" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Vaulx" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • valeavle · vael · vlae · vvale
  • Vaulxavulx · valux · vaullx · vaulxx · vauxl · vualx · vvaulx

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vale" for "Vaulx" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vale" is a verb and "Vaulx" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "vale" vs "Vaulx" - which ranks higher?
"vale" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,280 in our French list, against #38,592 for "Vaulx". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "vale" and "Vaulx" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Vaulx" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,400 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vale" and "Vaulx" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Vail vs Vaulx". 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 #70,400 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