Which to use
“vire” and “vive” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,094
- “vire” frequency rank
- #2,206
- “vive” frequency rank
- 11300
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vire | vive |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Étroite plate-forme ou corniche sur les flancs d’une paroi rocheuse, sentier serpentant le long d’une montagne. | Type de poisson osseux marin de l’Atlantique, de la Méditerranée et de la mer Noire, qui possède une épine dorsale venimeuse, et a la bouche inclinée vers le haut et les yeux situés au-dessus de la tête, de la famille des trachinidés, par exemple la grande vive. |
Where the eye mixes vire and vive
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. vire and vive follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: vire vs vive
A purely visual mix-up. vire (\viʁ\) and vive (\viv\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - r in “vire” becomes v in “vive”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11300, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vire is recorded at frequency rank #9,094, classified as anoun, pronounced \viʁ\. vive is at rank #2,206, tagged as anoun, pronounced \viv\.
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 11300, this pair ranks #409,664 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of vire vs vive
Shared letters: eiv. Private to "vire": r. Private to "vive": -.
"vire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "vive" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "vire" and "vive" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "vire" or "vive"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "vire" and "vive" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "vire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "vive" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #409,664 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vire" and "vive" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vire 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 #409,664 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.