volentvsvolesConfusable pair

Quick tell: volent is a verb, voles is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“volent” is a verb and “voles” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,882
“volent” frequency rank
#36,652
“voles” frequency rank
48534
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature volent voles
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de voler. Pluriel de vole.

Same sound, different letters: volent vs voles

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. volent runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against voles's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
volent
5 ch
voles

Ear matches; page differs - volent and voles

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: volent and voles carry the same recorded pronunciation, \vɔl\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48534, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

volent is recorded at frequency rank #11,882, classified as averb, pronounced \vɔl\. voles is at rank #36,652, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vɔl\.

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 48534, this pair ranks #178,164 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of volent vs voles

Shared letters: elov. Private to "volent": nt. Private to "voles": s.

"volent" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "voles" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • volent ← ovlent · vloent · voelnt · volennt · volentt · voletn · vollent · volnet
  • voles ← ovles · vloes · voels · voless · volles · volse · vvoles

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "volent" and "voles" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "volent" is a verb and "voles" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "volent" or "voles" show up more?
"volent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,882 in our French list, against #36,652 for "voles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "volent" / "voles". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "volent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "voles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #178,164 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "volent" and "voles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "voles vs Voss". 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 #178,164 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