virezvsvivesWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#42,116
“virez” frequency rank
#7,637
“vives” frequency rank
49753
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature virez vives
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de virer. Féminin pluriel de vif.

Where the eye mixes virez and vives

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

5 ch
virez
5 ch
vives

Look-alike desk: virez vs vives

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: virez is \vi.ʁe\ while vives is \viv\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49753, 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\. vives is at rank #7,637, tagged as anadj, 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 49753, this pair ranks #168,089 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of virez vs vives

Shared letters: eiv. Private to "virez": rz. Private to "vives": s.

"virez" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "vives" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • virezivrez · vierz · virezz · virrez · virze · vriez · vvirez
  • vivesivves · vievs · vivess · vivse · vivves · vvives

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "virez" for "vives" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "virez" is a verb and "vives" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "virez" vs "vives" - which ranks higher?
"vives" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,637 in our French list, against #42,116 for "virez". 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 "virez" and "vives" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "virez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vives" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #168,089 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "virez" and "vives" 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 #168,089 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