vieillesvsvieillisConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#4,391
“vieilles” frequency rank
#34,802
“vieillis” frequency rank
39193
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vieilles vieillis
Definition Féminin pluriel de vieux. Masculin pluriel de vieilli.

Where the eye mixes vieilles and vieillis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. vieilles and vieillis follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
vieilles
8 ch
vieillis

Look-alike desk: vieilles vs vieillis

A purely visual mix-up. vieilles (\vjɛj\) and vieillis (\vje.ji\) 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 a single letter - e in “vieilles” becomes i in “vieillis”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39193, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vieilles is recorded at frequency rank #4,391, classified as anadj, pronounced \vjɛj\. vieillis is at rank #34,802, 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 39193, this pair ranks #249,790 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vieilles vs vieillis

Shared letters: eilsv. Private to "vieilles": -. Private to "vieillis": -.

"vieilles" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC  ·  "vieillis" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vieillesiveilles · veiilles · vieilels · vieiles · vieilless · vieillse · vieliles · viielles
  • vieillisiveillis · veiillis · vieilils · vieilis · vieilliss · vieillsi · vielilis · viiellis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "vieilles" and "vieillis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\vjɛj\ versus \vje.ji\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "vieilles" or "vieillis" show up more?
"vieilles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,391 in our French list, against #34,802 for "vieillis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "vieilles" and "vieillis" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vieilles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vieillis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #249,790 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vieilles" and "vieillis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vieillis 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 #249,790 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