Which to use
“vola” and “volait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,375
- “vola” frequency rank
- #29,595
- “volait” frequency rank
- 74970
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vola | volait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple du verbe voler. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de voler. |
Where the eye mixes vola and volait
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. vola runs 4 letters (CVCV) against volait's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses vola with volait
A purely visual mix-up. vola (\vɔ.la\) and volait (\vɔ.lɛ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “vola” sits inside “volait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74970, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vola is recorded at frequency rank #45,375, classified as averb, pronounced \vɔ.la\. volait is at rank #29,595, tagged as averb, pronounced \vɔ.lɛ\.
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 74970, this pair ranks #35,485 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of vola vs volait
Shared letters: alov. Private to "vola": -. Private to "volait": it.
"vola" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "volait" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "vola" and "volait" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "vola" vs "volait" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "vola" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "volait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #35,485 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vola" and "volait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vlan vs vola". 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 #35,485 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.