Which to use
“valets” and “voles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,064
- “valets” frequency rank
- #36,652
- “voles” frequency rank
- 69716
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | valets | voles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de valet. | Pluriel de vole. |
Where the eye mixes valets and voles
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. valets runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against voles's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: valets vs voles
A purely visual mix-up. valets (\va.lɛ\) and voles (\vɔl\) 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 69716, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
valets is recorded at frequency rank #33,064, classified as anoun, pronounced \va.lɛ\. voles is at rank #36,652, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vɔl\.
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 69716, this pair ranks #54,086 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of valets vs voles
Shared letters: elsv. Private to "valets": at. Private to "voles": o.
"valets" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "voles" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "valets" for "voles" ever safe?
Frequency check: "valets" vs "voles" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "valets" and "voles" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "valets" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "voles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #54,086 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "valets" and "voles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "voles vs Voss". 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 #54,086 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.