Which to use
“ville” is a noun and “violés” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #182
- “ville” frequency rank
- #36,651
- “violés” frequency rank
- 36833
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ville | violés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Assemblage ordonné d'un nombre assez considérable de maisons disposées par rues, et limitées parfois par une enceinte. | Participe passé masculin pluriel de violer. |
Where the eye mixes ville and violés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. ville runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against violés's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between ville and violés
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ville is \vil\ while violés is \vjɔ.le\. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36833, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ville is recorded at frequency rank #182, classified as anoun, pronounced \vil\. violés is at rank #36,651, tagged as averb, pronounced \vjɔ.le\.
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 36833, this pair ranks #266,824 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ville vs violés
Shared letters: ilv. Private to "ville": e. Private to "violés": osé.
"ville" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "violés" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- ville ← ivlle · vilel · vlile · vville
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ville" for "violés" ever safe?
Frequency check: "ville" vs "violés" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "ville" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "violés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #266,824 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ville" and "violés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "violés vs virées". 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 #266,824 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.