Which to use
“vilains” is an adjective and “visais” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,017
- “vilains” frequency rank
- #43,207
- “visais” frequency rank
- 63224
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vilains | visais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de vilain. | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de viser. |
Where the eye mixes vilains and visais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. vilains runs 7 letters (CVCVVCC) against visais's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between vilains and visais
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vilains is \vi.lɛ̃\ while visais is \vi.zɛ\. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63224, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vilains is recorded at frequency rank #20,017, classified as anadj, pronounced \vi.lɛ̃\. visais is at rank #43,207, tagged as averb, pronounced \vi.zɛ\.
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 63224, this pair ranks #83,106 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of vilains vs visais
Shared letters: aisv. Private to "vilains": ln. Private to "visais": -.
"vilains" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC · "visais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "vilains" and "visais" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "vilains" or "visais" 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 "vilains" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "visais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #83,106 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vilains" and "visais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "visais vs vivrais". 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 #83,106 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.