Which to use
“volée” is a noun and “votée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,055
- “volée” frequency rank
- #12,885
- “votée” frequency rank
- 20940
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | volée | votée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de voler, vol, envol, en parlant des oiseaux et de certains animaux comme les insectes. | Participe passé féminin singulier de voter. |
Where the eye mixes volée and votée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. volée and votée follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between volée and votée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: volée is \vɔ.le\ while votée is \vɔ.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - l in “volée” becomes t in “votée”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20940, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
volée is recorded at frequency rank #8,055, classified as anoun, pronounced \vɔ.le\. votée is at rank #12,885, tagged as averb, pronounced \vɔ.te\.
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 20940, this pair ranks #365,684 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of volée vs votée
Shared letters: eové. Private to "volée": l. Private to "votée": t.
"volée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "votée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "volée" and "votée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "volée" vs "votée" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "volée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "votée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #365,684 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "volée" and "votée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "votée vs voûtée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #365,684 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.