Which to use
“vile” is an adjective and “ville” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,122
- “vile” frequency rank
- #182
- “ville” frequency rank
- 37304
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vile | ville |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de vil. | Assemblage ordonné d'un nombre assez considérable de maisons disposées par rues, et limitées parfois par une enceinte. |
Same sound, different letters: vile vs ville
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. vile runs 4 letters (CVCV) against ville's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - vile / ville
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: vile and ville carry the same recorded pronunciation, \vil\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37304, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vile is recorded at frequency rank #37,122, classified as anadj, pronounced \vil\. ville is at rank #182, tagged as anoun, 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 37304, this pair ranks #263,393 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of vile vs ville
Shared letters: eilv. Private to "vile": -. Private to "ville": -.
"vile" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "ville" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "vile" and "ville" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "vile" or "ville" show up more?
Useful next steps
"vile" and "ville" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "vile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ville" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #263,393 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vile" and "ville" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vile 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 #263,393 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.