volévsvouerTell them apart

Which to use

“volé” and “vouer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#4,632
“volé” frequency rank
#43,728
“vouer” frequency rank
48360
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature volé vouer
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de voler. Promettre par vœu.

Where the eye mixes volé and vouer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. volé runs 4 letters (CVCV) against vouer's 5 (CVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
volé
5 ch
vouer

Why the eye confuses volé with vouer

A purely visual mix-up. volé (\vɔ.le\) and vouer (\vwe\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48360, 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\. vouer is at rank #43,728, tagged as averb, pronounced \vwe\.

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 48360, this pair ranks #179,541 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of volé vs vouer

Shared letters: ov. Private to "volé": . Private to "vouer": eru.

"volé" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "vouer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vouerovuer · voeur · vouerr · voure · vuoer · vvouer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "volé" for "vouer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\vɔ.le\ versus \vwe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "volé" or "vouer"?
"volé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,632 in our French list, against #43,728 for "vouer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "volé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vouer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #179,541 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "volé" and "vouer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vouer vs voûtée". 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 #179,541 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