veillevsveuillezWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: veille is a noun, veuillez is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“veille” is a noun and “veuillez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,203
“veille” frequency rank
#4,390
“veuillez” frequency rank
6593
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature veille veuillez
Definition État du corps de l’homme ou de l’animal, dans lequel les sens sont en action. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’impératif de vouloir.

Where the eye mixes veille and veuillez

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

6 ch
veille
8 ch
veuillez

Why the eye confuses veille with veuillez

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: veille is \vɛj\ while veuillez is \vœ.je\. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6593, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

veille is recorded at frequency rank #2,203, classified as anoun, pronounced \vɛj\. veuillez is at rank #4,390, tagged as averb, pronounced \vœ.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 6593, this pair ranks #425,803 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of veille vs veuillez

Shared letters: eilv. Private to "veille": -. Private to "veuillez": uz.

"veille" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "veuillez" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • veilleeville · veile · veilel · velile · vveille
  • veuillezevuillez · veiullez · veuilelz · veuilez · veuillezz · veuillze · veulilez · vueillez

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "veille" and "veuillez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "veille" is a noun and "veuillez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "veille" or "veuillez"?
"veille" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,203 in our French list, against #4,390 for "veuillez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "veille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "veuillez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #425,803 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "veille" and "veuillez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "veille vs veillées". 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 #425,803 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