Which to use
“vieillard” and “vieillards” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,035
- “vieillard” frequency rank
- #24,075
- “vieillards” frequency rank
- 40110
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vieillard | vieillards |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Homme d’un âge avancé. | Pluriel de vieillard. |
Same sound, different letters: vieillard vs vieillards
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. vieillard runs 9 letters (CVVVCCVCC) against vieillards's 10 (CVVVCCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: vieillard vs vieillards
This is the hard kind. vieillard and vieillards are pronounced identically (\vjɛ.jaʁ\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “vieillard” sits inside “vieillards”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40110, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vieillard is recorded at frequency rank #16,035, classified as anoun, pronounced \vjɛ.jaʁ\. vieillards is at rank #24,075, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vjɛ.jaʁ\.
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 40110, this pair ranks #242,961 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of vieillard vs vieillards
Shared letters: adeilrv. Private to "vieillard": -. Private to "vieillards": s.
"vieillard" · 9 letters · shape CVVVCCVCC · "vieillards" · 10 letters · shape CVVVCCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- vieillard ← iveillard · veiillard · vieilalrd · vieilard · vieilladr · vieillardd · vieillarrd · vieillrad
- vieillards ← iveillards · veiillards · vieilalrds · vieilards · vieilladrs · vieillardds · vieillardss · vieillarrds
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "vieillard" for "vieillards" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "vieillard" or "vieillards" show up more?
After this comparison
"vieillard" and "vieillards" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "vieillard" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "vieillards" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #242,961 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vieillard" and "vieillards" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vieillard vs Villard". 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 #242,961 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.