veilléevsvioléeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#22,132
“veillée” frequency rank
#14,173
“violée” frequency rank
36305
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature veillée violée
Definition Temps pendant lequel on veille, soirée. Participe passé féminin singulier de violer.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set veillée and violée apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
veillée
6 ch
violée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: veillée is \ve.je\ while violée is \vjɔ.le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 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 36305, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

veillée is recorded at frequency rank #22,132, classified as anoun, pronounced \ve.je\. violée is at rank #14,173, tagged as averb, pronounced \vjɔ.le\.

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 36305, this pair ranks #270,537 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of veillée vs violée

Shared letters: eilvé. Private to "veillée": -. Private to "violée": o.

"veillée" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV  ·  "violée" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV

Frequency comparison

veillée#22,132
violée#14,173

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "veillée" and "violée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "veillée" is a noun and "violée" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "veillée" or "violée"?
"violée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,173 in our French list, against #22,132 for "veillée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering veillée vs violée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “veillée”; for a verb, it's “violée”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “veillée” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list