Which to use
“vide” is an adjective and “volé” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,546
- “vide” frequency rank
- #4,632
- “volé” frequency rank
- 6178
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vide | volé |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui ne contient rien ; qui est totalement dépourvu de. | Participe passé masculin singulier de voler. |
Where the eye mixes vide and volé
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Look-alike desk: vide vs volé
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vide is \vid\ while volé is \vɔ.le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6178, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vide is recorded at frequency rank #1,546, classified as anadj, pronounced \vid\. volé is at rank #4,632, tagged as averb, pronounced \vɔ.le\.
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 6178, this pair ranks #426,958 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of vide vs volé
Shared letters: v. Private to "vide": dei. Private to "volé": loé.
"vide" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "volé" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- vide ← ivde · vdie · vidde · vied · vvide
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "vide" and "volé" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "vide" or "volé" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "vide" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "volé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #426,958 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vide" and "volé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "volé vs voy". 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 #426,958 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.