vsviteWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#44,807
“vé” frequency rank
#406
“vite” frequency rank
45213
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vite
Definition Lettre latine V, v. Rapide, qui se meut avec célérité, avec promptitude ; se dit surtout dans le sport, sinon plutôt des animaux et des choses dont le mouvement est rapide.

Where the eye mixes vé and vite

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch
vé
4 ch
vite

Look-alike desk: vé vs vite

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: is \ve\ while vite is \vit\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 45213, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

is recorded at frequency rank #44,807, classified as anoun, pronounced \ve\. vite is at rank #406, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vit\.

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 45213, this pair ranks #204,490 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vé vs vite

Shared letters: v. Private to "vé": é. Private to "vite": eit.

"vé" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "vite" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • viteivte · vitte · vtie · vvite

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vé" for "vite" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vé" is a noun and "vite" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "vé" vs "vite" - which ranks higher?
"vite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #406 in our French list, against #44,807 for "vé". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vite" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #204,490 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vé" and "vite" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vé vs viv". 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 #204,490 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