villes vs vils, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“villes” is a noun and “vils” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#891
“villes” frequency rank: #44,805
“vils” frequency rank: 45696
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	villes	vils
Definition	Pluriel de ville.	Masculin pluriel de vil.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set villes and vils apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

villes

4 ch

vils

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: villes 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45696, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

villes is recorded at frequency rank #891, 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 45696, this pair ranks #200,732 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of villes vs vils

Shared letters: ilsv. Private to "villes": e. Private to "vils": -.

"villes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "vils" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

villes ← ivlles · vilels · viles · villess · villse · vliles · vvilles
vils ← ivls · vills · vilss · visl · vlis · vvils

Frequency comparison

villes#891

vils#44,805

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "villes" and "vils" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "villes" is a noun and "vils" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "villes" or "vils"?

"villes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #891 in our French list, against #44,805 for "vils". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering villes vs vils

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “villes”; for an adjective, it's “vils”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “villes” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable