Which to use
“ville” is a noun and “vils” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #182
- “ville” frequency rank
- #44,805
- “vils” frequency rank
- 44987
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ville | vils |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Assemblage ordonné d'un nombre assez considérable de maisons disposées par rues, et limitées parfois par une enceinte. | Masculin pluriel de vil. |
Same sound, different letters: ville vs vils
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters. ville runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against vils's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - ville / vils
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: ville and vils carry the same recorded pronunciation, \vil\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, 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 44987, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ville is recorded at frequency rank #182, classified as anoun, pronounced \vil\. 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 44987, this pair ranks #206,269 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ville vs vils
Shared letters: ilv. Private to "ville": e. Private to "vils": s.
"ville" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "vils" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ville" and "vils" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "ville" or "vils"?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "ville" / "vils". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "ville" 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 #206,269 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ville" 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 #206,269 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.