virezvsviteTell them apart

Quick tell: virez is a verb, vite is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“virez” is a verb and “vite” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,116
“virez” frequency rank
#406
“vite” frequency rank
42522
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature virez vite
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de virer. Rapide, qui se meut avec célérité, avec promptitude ; se dit surtout dans le sport, sinon plutôt des animaux et des choses dont le mouvement est rapide.

Where the eye mixes virez and vite

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
virez
4 ch
vite

Why the eye confuses virez with vite

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: virez is \vi.ʁe\ while vite is \vit\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42522, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

virez is recorded at frequency rank #42,116, classified as averb, pronounced \vi.ʁe\. vite is at rank #406, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vit\.

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 42522, this pair ranks #224,987 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of virez vs vite

Shared letters: eiv. Private to "virez": rz. Private to "vite": t.

"virez" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "vite" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • virezivrez · vierz · virezz · virrez · virze · vriez · vvirez
  • viteivte · vitte · vtie · vvite

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "virez" for "vite" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "virez" is a verb and "vite" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "virez" or "vite"?
"vite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #406 in our French list, against #42,116 for "virez". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "virez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vite" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #224,987 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "virez" and "vite" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "virées vs virez". 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 #224,987 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