veluvsversConfusable pair

Quick tell: velu is a adjective, vers is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“velu” is an adjective and “vers” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,940
“velu” frequency rank
#185
“vers” frequency rank
46125
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature velu vers
Definition Qui est couvert de poils. Suite de mots rythmés selon la quantité, l’accentuation, le nombre des syllabes ou le retour de la rime.

Where the eye mixes velu and vers

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
velu
4 ch
vers

Look-alike desk: velu vs vers

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: velu is \və.ly\ while vers is \vɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46125, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

velu is recorded at frequency rank #45,940, classified as anadj, pronounced \və.ly\. vers is at rank #185, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vɛʁ\.

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 46125, this pair ranks #197,406 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of velu vs vers

Shared letters: ev. Private to "velu": lu. Private to "vers": rs.

"velu" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "vers" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • veluevlu · vellu · veul · vleu · vvelu
  • versevrs · verrs · verss · vesr · vres · vvers

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "velu" for "vers" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "velu" is an adjective and "vers" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "velu" or "vers" show up more?
"vers" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #185 in our French list, against #45,940 for "velu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "velu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #197,406 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "velu" and "vers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "velu vs Viau". 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 #197,406 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