vilevsvisezWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: vile is a adjective, visez is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“vile” is an adjective and “visez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,122
“vile” frequency rank
#47,098
“visez” frequency rank
84220
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vile visez
Definition Féminin singulier de vil. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de viser.

Where the eye mixes vile and visez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. vile runs 4 letters (CVCV) against visez's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
vile
5 ch
visez

Why the eye confuses vile with visez

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vile is \vil\ while visez is \vi.ze\. 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 84220, 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\. visez is at rank #47,098, tagged as averb, pronounced \vi.ze\.

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 84220, this pair ranks #13,366 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vile vs visez

Shared letters: eiv. Private to "vile": l. Private to "visez": sz.

"vile" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "visez" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vile ← ivle · vlie · vvile
  • visez ← ivsez · viesz · visezz · vissez · visze · vsiez · vvisez

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "vile" and "visez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vile" is an adjective and "visez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "vile" or "visez" show up more?
"vile" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,122 in our French list, against #47,098 for "visez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "vile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "visez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,366 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vile" and "visez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "visez vs vivrez". 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 #13,366 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