voléesvsvolteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#17,591
“volées” frequency rank
#27,292
“volte” frequency rank
44883
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature volées volte
Definition Féminin pluriel de volé. Danse à trois temps d’origine provençale.

Where the eye mixes volées and volte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. volées runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against volte's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
volées
5 ch
volte

Why the eye confuses volées with volte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: volées is \vɔ.le\ while volte is \vɔlt\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44883, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

volées is recorded at frequency rank #17,591, classified as anadj, pronounced \vɔ.le\. volte is at rank #27,292, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vɔlt\.

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 44883, this pair ranks #207,080 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of volées vs volte

Shared letters: elov. Private to "volées": sé. Private to "volte": t.

"volées" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "volte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • volte ← ovlte · vlote · vollte · voltte · votle · vvolte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "volées" for "volte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "volées" is an adjective and "volte" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "volées" or "volte" show up more?
"volées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,591 in our French list, against #27,292 for "volte". 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 "volées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "volte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #207,080 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "volées" and "volte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "volte 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 #207,080 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