valléesvsveilléesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: vallées is a noun, veillées is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“vallées” is a noun and “veillées” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,098
“vallées” frequency rank
#45,369
“veillées” frequency rank
55467
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vallées veillées
Definition Pluriel de vallée. Féminin pluriel de veillé.

Where the eye mixes vallées and veillées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. vallées runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against veillées's 8 (CVVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
vallées
8 ch
veillées

Why the eye confuses vallées with veillées

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vallées is \va.le\ while veillées is \ve.je\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55467, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vallées is recorded at frequency rank #10,098, classified as anoun, pronounced \va.le\. veillées is at rank #45,369, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ve.je\.

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 55467, this pair ranks #127,260 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vallées vs veillées

Shared letters: elsvé. Private to "vallées": a. Private to "veillées": i.

"vallées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "veillées" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vallées" and "veillées" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vallées" is a noun and "veillées" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "vallées" vs "veillées" - which ranks higher?
"vallées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,098 in our French list, against #45,369 for "veillées". 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 "vallées" and "veillées" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vallées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "veillées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #127,260 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vallées" and "veillées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "veillées vs veilleur". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #127,260 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