Which to use
“verlan” is a noun and “vlan” is an onomatopoeia - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,674
- “verlan” frequency rank
- #49,427
- “vlan” frequency rank
- 92101
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | verlan | vlan |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Argot français consistant à inverser les syllabes ou les sons d’un mot, avec restauration phonétique et graphique des « e » disparus, accompagnée de changement de timbre de ces « e ». | Onomatopée indiquant un bruit soudain, un coup subit. |
Where the eye mixes verlan and vlan
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between verlan and vlan
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: verlan is \vɛʁ.lɑ̃\ while vlan is \vlɑ̃\. 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 onomatopoeia), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 92101, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
verlan is recorded at frequency rank #42,674, classified as anoun, pronounced \vɛʁ.lɑ̃\. vlan is at rank #49,427, tagged as anonomatopoeia, pronounced \vlɑ̃\.
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 92101, this pair ranks #3,269 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of verlan vs vlan
Shared letters: alnv. Private to "verlan": er. Private to "vlan": -.
"verlan" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "vlan" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "verlan" for "vlan" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "verlan" or "vlan" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "verlan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "vlan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #3,269 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "verlan" and "vlan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vigan vs vlan". 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 #3,269 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.