voilervsvoyerWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#21,812
“voiler” frequency rank
#34,361
“voyer” frequency rank
56173
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature voiler voyer
Definition Couvrir d’un voile. Relatif à la voirie.

Where the eye mixes voiler and voyer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. voiler runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against voyer's 5 (CVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
voiler
5 ch
voyer

Look-alike desk: voiler vs voyer

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: voiler is \vwa.le\ while voyer is \vwa.je\. 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 56173, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

voiler is recorded at frequency rank #21,812, classified as averb, pronounced \vwa.le\. voyer is at rank #34,361, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vwa.je\.

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 56173, this pair ranks #122,760 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of voiler vs voyer

Shared letters: eorv. Private to "voiler": il. Private to "voyer": y.

"voiler" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "voyer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • voileroviler · voielr · voilerr · voiller · voilre · volier · vvoiler
  • voyerovyer · voeyr · voyerr · voyre · voyyer · vvoyer · vyoer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "voiler" and "voyer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "voiler" is a verb and "voyer" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "voiler" vs "voyer" - which ranks higher?
"voiler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,812 in our French list, against #34,361 for "voyer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "voiler" and "voyer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "voiler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "voyer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #122,760 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "voiler" and "voyer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "voy vs voyer". 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 #122,760 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