versvsverserWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#185
“vers” frequency rank
#6,043
“verser” frequency rank
6228
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vers verser
Definition Suite de mots rythmés selon la quantité, l’accentuation, le nombre des syllabes ou le retour de la rime. Faire couler.

Where the eye mixes vers and verser

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
vers
6 ch
verser

Visual trap between vers and verser

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vers is \vɛʁ\ while verser is \vɛʁ.se\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “vers” sits inside “verser”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6228, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vers is recorded at frequency rank #185, classified as anoun, pronounced \vɛʁ\. verser is at rank #6,043, tagged as averb, pronounced \vɛʁ.se\.

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 6228, this pair ranks #426,803 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vers vs verser

Shared letters: ersv. Private to "vers": -. Private to "verser": -.

"vers" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "verser" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • versevrs · verrs · verss · vesr · vres · vvers
  • verserevrser · veresr · verrser · verserr · versre · versser · vesrer · vreser

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vers" for "verser" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vers" is a noun and "verser" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "vers" vs "verser" - which ranks higher?
"vers" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #185 in our French list, against #6,043 for "verser". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "vers" and "verser" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vers" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "verser" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #426,803 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vers" and "verser" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verser vs versera". 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 #426,803 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