véhiculevsvéhiculesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,061
“véhicule” frequency rank
#2,401
“véhicules” frequency rank
4462
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature véhicule véhicules
Definition Engin mobile servant au transport des personnes et des marchandises. Pluriel de véhicule.

Same sound, different letters: véhicule vs véhicules

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. véhicule runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCV) against véhicules's 9 (CVCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
véhicule
9 ch
véhicules

Ear matches; page differs - véhicule and véhicules

This is the hard kind. véhicule and véhicules are pronounced identically (\ve.i.kyl\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “véhicule” sits inside “véhicules”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4462, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

véhicule is recorded at frequency rank #2,061, classified as anoun, pronounced \ve.i.kyl\. véhicules is at rank #2,401, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ve.i.kyl\.

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 4462, this pair ranks #431,551 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of véhicule vs véhicules

Shared letters: cehiluvé. Private to "véhicule": -. Private to "véhicules": s.

"véhicule" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "véhicules" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "véhicule" and "véhicules" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ve.i.kyl\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "véhicule" or "véhicules"?
"véhicule" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,061 in our French list, against #2,401 for "véhicules". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "véhicule" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "véhicules" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #431,551 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "véhicule" and "véhicules" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "véhiculées vs véhicules". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #431,551 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