Which to use
“veiller” is a verb and “ville” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,908
- “veiller” frequency rank
- #182
- “ville” frequency rank
- 7090
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | veiller | ville |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | S’abstenir de dormir pendant le temps destiné au sommeil. | Assemblage ordonné d'un nombre assez considérable de maisons disposées par rues, et limitées parfois par une enceinte. |
Where the eye mixes veiller and ville
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses veiller with ville
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: veiller is \vɛ.je\ while ville is \vil\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7090, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
veiller is recorded at frequency rank #6,908, classified as averb, pronounced \vɛ.je\. ville is at rank #182, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vil\.
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 7090, this pair ranks #424,266 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of veiller vs ville
Shared letters: eilv. Private to "veiller": r. Private to "ville": -.
"veiller" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "ville" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "veiller" and "ville" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "veiller" or "ville" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "veiller" and "ville" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "veiller" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ville" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #424,266 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "veiller" and "ville" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vaciller vs veiller". 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 #424,266 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.