vidéovsvierWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#443
“vidéo” frequency rank
#41,592
“vier” frequency rank
42035
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vidéo vier
Definition Ensemble des techniques permettant la visualisation ou l’enregistrement d’images animées accompagnées de son, sur un support électronique. Pénis.

Where the eye mixes vidéo and vier

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

5 ch
vidéo
4 ch
vier

Why the eye confuses vidéo with vier

A purely visual mix-up. vidéo (\vi.de.o\) and vier (\vje\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42035, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vidéo is recorded at frequency rank #443, classified as anoun, pronounced \vi.de.o\. vier is at rank #41,592, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vje\.

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 42035, this pair ranks #228,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vidéo vs vier

Shared letters: iv. Private to "vidéo": doé. Private to "vier": er.

"vidéo" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "vier" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vierveir · vvier

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vidéo" for "vier" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\vi.de.o\ versus \vje\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "vidéo" or "vier"?
"vidéo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #443 in our French list, against #41,592 for "vier". 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 "vidéo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vier" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #228,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vidéo" and "vier" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vier 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 #228,689 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