vivsViryTell them apart

Which to use

“vi” and “Viry” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#3,812
“vi” frequency rank
#47,097
“Viry” frequency rank
50909
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vi Viry
Definition Éditeur de texte minimaliste créé en 1976 par Bill Joy, n’utilisant que le clavier, et modal : l’effet de la pression sur une touche du clavier dépend du mode dans lequel on se trouve (mode insertion ou mode commande). Nom de famille.

Where the eye mixes vi and Viry

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

2 ch
vi
4 ch
Viry

Why the eye confuses vi with Viry

A purely visual mix-up. vi (\vi.aj\) and Viry (\vi.ʁi\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “vi” sits inside “Viry”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50909, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vi is recorded at frequency rank #3,812, classified as aname, pronounced \vi.aj\. Viry is at rank #47,097, tagged as aname, pronounced \vi.ʁi\.

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 50909, this pair ranks #159,010 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vi vs Viry

Shared letters: iv. Private to "vi": -. Private to "Viry": ry.

"vi" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "Viry" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Viryvirry · viryy · viyr · vriy · vviry

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vi" for "Viry" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\vi.aj\ versus \vi.ʁi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "vi" or "Viry" show up more?
"vi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,812 in our French list, against #47,097 for "Viry". 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 "vi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Viry" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #159,010 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vi" and "Viry" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Viry vs viv". 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 #159,010 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