Which to use
“veiller” is a verb and “villes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,908
- “veiller” frequency rank
- #891
- “villes” frequency rank
- 7799
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | veiller | villes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | S’abstenir de dormir pendant le temps destiné au sommeil. | Pluriel de ville. |
Where the eye mixes veiller and villes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses veiller with villes
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: veiller is \vɛ.je\ while villes is \vil\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7799, 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\. villes is at rank #891, 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 7799, this pair ranks #422,086 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of veiller vs villes
Shared letters: eilv. Private to "veiller": r. Private to "villes": s.
"veiller" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "villes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "veiller" and "villes" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "veiller" or "villes" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "veiller" and "villes" 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 "villes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #422,086 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "veiller" and "villes" 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 #422,086 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.