Which to use
“vieille” is a noun and “vieillir” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,843
- “vieille” frequency rank
- #14,821
- “vieillir” frequency rank
- 16664
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vieille | vieillir |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Femme âgée. | Devenir vieux. |
Where the eye mixes vieille and vieillir
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. vieille runs 7 letters (CVVVCCV) against vieillir's 8 (CVVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between vieille and vieillir
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vieille is \vjɛj\ while vieillir is \vje.jiʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16664, 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\. vieillir is at rank #14,821, tagged as averb, pronounced \vje.jiʁ\.
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 16664, this pair ranks #386,816 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of vieille vs vieillir
Shared letters: eilv. Private to "vieille": -. Private to "vieillir": r.
"vieille" · 7 letters · shape CVVVCCV · "vieillir" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "vieille" for "vieillir" ever safe?
Which is more common, "vieille" or "vieillir"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "vieille" and "vieillir" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "vieille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "vieillir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #386,816 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vieille" and "vieillir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vieillir 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 #386,816 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.