Which to use
“vire” is a noun and “volé” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,094
- “vire” frequency rank
- #4,632
- “volé” frequency rank
- 13726
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vire | volé |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Étroite plate-forme ou corniche sur les flancs d’une paroi rocheuse, sentier serpentant le long d’une montagne. | Participe passé masculin singulier de voler. |
Where the eye mixes vire and volé
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. vire and volé follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses vire with volé
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vire is \viʁ\ while volé is \vɔ.le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 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 13726, 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\. volé is at rank #4,632, 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 13726, this pair ranks #399,795 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of vire vs volé
Shared letters: v. Private to "vire": eir. Private to "volé": loé.
"vire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "volé" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- vire ← vrie
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "vire" and "volé" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "vire" vs "volé" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "vire" and "volé" 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 "volé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #399,795 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vire" and "volé" 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 #399,795 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.