vasevsvesteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#10,099
“vase” frequency rank
#4,536
“veste” frequency rank
14635
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vase veste
Definition Bourbe, limon qui se dépose au fond de la mer, des fleuves, des étangs, etc. Sorte de vêtement court et sans basques.

Where the eye mixes vase and veste

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

4 ch
vase
5 ch
veste

Visual trap between vase and veste

A purely visual mix-up. vase (\vɑz\) and veste (\vɛst\) 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 14635, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vase is recorded at frequency rank #10,099, classified as anoun, pronounced \vɑz\. veste is at rank #4,536, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vɛst\.

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 14635, this pair ranks #395,824 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vase vs veste

Shared letters: esv. Private to "vase": a. Private to "veste": t.

"vase" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "veste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vase ← avse · vaes · vasse · vsae · vvase
  • veste ← evste · veset · vesste · vestte · vetse · vsete · vveste

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vase" for "veste" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\vɑz\ versus \vɛst\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "vase" or "veste"?
"veste" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,536 in our French list, against #10,099 for "vase". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "vase" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "veste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #395,824 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vase" and "veste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vase 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 #395,824 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