volavsvouiWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: vola is a verb, voui is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“vola” is a verb and “voui” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,375
“vola” frequency rank
#45,950
“voui” frequency rank
91325
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vola voui
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple du verbe voler. Oui.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set vola and voui apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
vola
4 ch
voui

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vola is \vɔ.la\ while voui is \vwi\. 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 adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 91325, 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\. voui is at rank #45,950, tagged as anadv, pronounced \vwi\.

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 91325, this pair ranks #3,958 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vola vs voui

Shared letters: ov. Private to "vola": al. Private to "voui": iu.

"vola" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "voui" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • volaovla · vloa · voal · volla · vvola
  • vouiovui · voiu · vuoi · vvoui

Frequency comparison

vola#45,375
voui#45,950

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vola" and "voui" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vola" is a verb and "voui" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "vola" or "voui"?
"vola" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #45,375 in our French list, against #45,950 for "voui". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering vola vs voui

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “vola”; for an adverb, it's “voui”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “vola” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list