Which to use
“vieille” is a noun and “vieilli” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,843
- “vieille” frequency rank
- #15,536
- “vieilli” frequency rank
- 17379
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vieille | vieilli |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Femme âgée. | Qui a pris un coup de vieux. |
Where the eye mixes vieille and vieilli
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. vieille and vieilli follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses vieille with vieilli
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vieille is \vjɛj\ while vieilli is \vje.ji\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “vieille” becomes i in “vieilli”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17379, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vieille is recorded at frequency rank #1,843, classified as anoun, pronounced \vjɛj\. vieilli is at rank #15,536, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vje.ji\.
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 17379, this pair ranks #383,473 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of vieille vs vieilli
Shared letters: eilv. Private to "vieille": -. Private to "vieilli": -.
"vieille" · 7 letters · shape CVVVCCV · "vieilli" · 7 letters · shape CVVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "vieille" and "vieilli" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "vieille" or "vieilli" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "vieille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "vieilli" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #383,473 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vieille" and "vieilli" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vieilli vs vieillot". 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 #383,473 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.