veuillesvsvieillesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: veuilles is a verb, vieilles is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“veuilles” is a verb and “vieilles” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,575
“veuilles” frequency rank
#4,391
“vieilles” frequency rank
30966
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature veuilles vieilles
Definition Deuxième personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de vouloir. Féminin pluriel de vieux.

Where the eye mixes veuilles and vieilles

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. veuilles and vieilles follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
veuilles
8 ch
vieilles

Why the eye confuses veuilles with vieilles

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: veuilles is \vœj\ while vieilles is \vjɛj\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30966, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

veuilles is recorded at frequency rank #26,575, classified as averb, pronounced \vœj\. vieilles is at rank #4,391, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vjɛj\.

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 30966, this pair ranks #306,863 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of veuilles vs vieilles

Shared letters: eilsv. Private to "veuilles": u. Private to "vieilles": -.

"veuilles" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC  ·  "vieilles" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • veuillesevuilles · veiulles · veuilels · veuiles · veuilless · veuillse · veuliles · vueilles
  • vieillesiveilles · veiilles · vieilels · vieiles · vieilless · vieillse · vieliles · viielles

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "veuilles" and "vieilles" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "veuilles" is a verb and "vieilles" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "veuilles" or "vieilles" show up more?
"vieilles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,391 in our French list, against #26,575 for "veuilles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "veuilles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vieilles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #306,863 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "veuilles" and "vieilles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "veillées vs veuilles". 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 #306,863 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