VIHvsvilsTell them apart

Quick tell: VIH is a noun, vils is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“VIH” is a noun and “vils” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,278
“VIH” frequency rank
#44,805
“vils” frequency rank
57083
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature VIH vils
Definition Virus humain supposé être associé au sida, capable de transcriptase inverse. Masculin pluriel de vil.

Where the eye mixes VIH and vils

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
VIH
4 ch
vils

Visual trap between VIH and vils

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: VIH is \ve i aʃ\ while vils is \vil\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57083, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

VIH is recorded at frequency rank #12,278, classified as anoun, pronounced \ve i aʃ\. 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 57083, this pair ranks #117,138 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of VIH vs vils

Shared letters: iv. Private to "VIH": h. Private to "vils": ls.

"VIH" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "vils" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vilsivls · vills · vilss · visl · vlis · vvils

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "VIH" for "vils" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "VIH" is a noun and "vils" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "VIH" or "vils"?
"VIH" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,278 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.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "VIH" 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 #117,138 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "VIH" 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 #117,138 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