violevsvolezWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: viole is a noun, volez is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“viole” is a noun and “volez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,489
“viole” frequency rank
#43,727
“volez” frequency rank
57216
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature viole volez
Definition Instrument de musique à six ou sept cordes, dont on joue avec un archet. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de voler.

Where the eye mixes viole and volez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. viole (CVVCV) and volez (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
viole
5 ch
volez

Visual trap between viole and volez

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: viole is \vjɔl\ while volez is \vɔ.le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57216, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

viole is recorded at frequency rank #13,489, classified as anoun, pronounced \vjɔl\. volez is at rank #43,727, tagged as averb, pronounced \vɔ.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 57216, this pair ranks #116,350 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of viole vs volez

Shared letters: elov. Private to "viole": i. Private to "volez": z.

"viole" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "volez" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • viole ← ivole · viloe · vioel · violle · vviole
  • volez ← ovlez · vloez · voelz · volezz · vollez · volze · vvolez

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "viole" and "volez" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "viole" is a noun and "volez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "viole" vs "volez" - which ranks higher?
"viole" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,489 in our French list, against #43,727 for "volez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "viole" and "volez" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "viole" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "volez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #116,350 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "viole" and "volez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "visez vs volez". 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 #116,350 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