VogelvsvolesTell them apart

Which to use

“Vogel” and “voles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#31,781
“Vogel” frequency rank
#36,652
“voles” frequency rank
68433
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Vogel voles
Definition Oiseau. Pluriel de vole.

Where the eye mixes Vogel and voles

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Vogel and voles follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Vogel
5 ch
voles

Why the eye confuses Vogel with voles

A purely visual mix-up. Vogel (\ˈfoː.ɡl̩\) and voles (\vɔl\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68433, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Vogel is recorded at frequency rank #31,781, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈfoː.ɡl̩\. voles is at rank #36,652, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vɔl\.

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 68433, this pair ranks #59,224 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Vogel vs voles

Shared letters: elov. Private to "Vogel": g. Private to "voles": s.

"Vogel" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "voles" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Vogel ← ovgel · vgoel · voegl · vogell · voggel · vogle · vvogel
  • voles ← ovles · vloes · voels · voless · volles · volse · vvoles

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Vogel" and "voles" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ˈfoː.ɡl̩\ versus \vɔl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Vogel" or "voles"?
"Vogel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,781 in our French list, against #36,652 for "voles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Vogel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "voles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #59,224 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Vogel" and "voles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "voles vs Voss". 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 #59,224 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