vietvsvilsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#29,592
“viet” frequency rank
#44,805
“vils” frequency rank
74397
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature viet vils
Definition Vietnamien. Masculin pluriel de vil.

Where the eye mixes viet and vils

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. viet (CVVC) and vils (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
viet
4 ch
vils

Visual trap between viet and vils

A purely visual mix-up. viet (\vjɛt\) and vils (\vil\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74397, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

viet is recorded at frequency rank #29,592, classified as anadj, pronounced \vjɛt\. vils is at rank #44,805, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vil\.

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 74397, this pair ranks #37,308 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of viet vs vils

Shared letters: iv. Private to "viet": et. Private to "vils": ls.

"viet" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "vils" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • viet ← ivet · veit · viett · vviet
  • vils ← ivls · vills · vilss · visl · vlis · vvils

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "viet" and "vils" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\vjɛt\ versus \vil\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "viet" vs "vils" - which ranks higher?
"viet" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,592 in our French list, against #44,805 for "vils". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "viet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vils" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #37,308 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "viet" and "vils" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vils 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 #37,308 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