Which to use
“vau” is a noun and “voy” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,109
- “vau” frequency rank
- #48,860
- “voy” frequency rank
- 90969
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vau | voy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie du cintre utilisée pour soutenir la voute pendant sa construction. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif du verbe irrégulier ir (« aller »). |
Where the eye mixes vau and voy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. vau and voy follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses vau with voy
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vau is \vo\ while voy is \ˈboj\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90969, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vau is recorded at frequency rank #42,109, classified as anoun, pronounced \vo\. voy is at rank #48,860, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈboj\.
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 90969, this pair ranks #4,279 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of vau vs voy
Shared letters: v. Private to "vau": au. Private to "voy": oy.
"vau" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "voy" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "vau" for "voy" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "vau" or "voy" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "vau" and "voy" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "vau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "voy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #4,279 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vau" and "voy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "viv vs voy". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #4,279 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.