vir vs vois, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#46,521
“vir” frequency rank: #298
“vois” frequency rank: 46819
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	vir	vois
Definition	Forme mutée de bir par adoucissement (b → v).	Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de voir.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set vir and vois apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

vir

4 ch

vois

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vir is \ˈviː.r\ while vois is \vwa\. 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 46819, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vir is recorded at frequency rank #46,521, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈviː.r\. vois is at rank #298, tagged as averb, pronounced \vwa\.

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 46819, this pair ranks #191,823 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vir vs vois

Shared letters: iv. Private to "vir": r. Private to "vois": os.

"vir" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "vois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

vois ← ovis · vios · voiss · vosi · vvois

Frequency comparison

vir#46,521

vois#298

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vir" and "vois" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vir" is a noun and "vois" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "vir" or "vois"?

"vois" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #298 in our French list, against #46,521 for "vir". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering vir vs vois

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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