volévsvosWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: volé is a verb, vos is a determiner, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“volé” is a verb and “vos” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,632
“volé” frequency rank
#207
“vos” frequency rank
4839
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature volé vos
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de voler. Qui sont à vous, qui vous appartiennent. Deuxième personne du pluriel. Plusieurs possesseurs et plusieurs objets, ou un seul possesseur (forme de politesse) et plusieurs objets.

Where the spellings diverge

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

4 ch
volé
3 ch
vos

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: volé is \vɔ.le\ while vos is \vo\. 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 determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4839, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

volé is recorded at frequency rank #4,632, classified as averb, pronounced \vɔ.le\. vos is at rank #207, tagged as adet, pronounced \vo\.

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 4839, this pair ranks #430,550 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of volé vs vos

Shared letters: ov. Private to "volé": . Private to "vos": s.

"volé" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "vos" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequency comparison

volé#4,632
vos#207

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "volé" and "vos" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "volé" is a verb and "vos" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "volé" or "vos"?
"vos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #207 in our French list, against #4,632 for "volé". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering volé vs vos

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “volé”; for a determiner, it's “vos”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “volé” 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