volagevsvoyageConfusable pair

Quick tell: volage is a adjective, voyage is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“volage” is an adjective and “voyage” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,949
“volage” frequency rank
#860
“voyage” frequency rank
46809
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature volage voyage
Definition Qui est changeant et léger. Action de se déplacer par un chemin plus ou moins long pour se rendre d’une ville dans une autre, d’un pays dans un autre, d’un lieu dans un autre.

Where the eye mixes volage and voyage

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. volage (CVCVCV) and voyage (CVVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
volage
6 ch
voyage

Why the eye confuses volage with voyage

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: volage is \vɔ.laʒ\ while voyage is \vwa.jaʒ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - l in “volage” becomes y in “voyage”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46809, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

volage is recorded at frequency rank #45,949, classified as anadj, pronounced \vɔ.laʒ\. voyage is at rank #860, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vwa.jaʒ\.

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 46809, this pair ranks #191,904 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of volage vs voyage

Shared letters: aegov. Private to "volage": l. Private to "voyage": y.

"volage" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "voyage" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • volageovlage · vloage · voalge · volaeg · volagge · volgae · vollage · vvolage
  • voyageovyage · voayge · voyaeg · voyagge · voygae · voyyage · vvoyage · vyoage

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "volage" for "voyage" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "volage" is an adjective and "voyage" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "volage" or "voyage" show up more?
"voyage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #860 in our French list, against #45,949 for "volage". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "volage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "voyage" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #191,904 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "volage" and "voyage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vola vs volage". 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 #191,904 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