Which to use
“voles” is a noun and “volez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #36,652
- “voles” frequency rank
- #43,727
- “volez” frequency rank
- 80379
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | voles | volez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de vole. | Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de voler. |
Where the eye mixes voles and volez
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. voles and volez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses voles with volez
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: voles is \vɔl\ while volez is \vɔ.le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - s in “voles” becomes z in “volez”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80379, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
voles is recorded at frequency rank #36,652, classified as anoun, pronounced \vɔl\. volez is at rank #43,727, tagged as averb, pronounced \vɔ.le\.
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 80379, this pair ranks #21,090 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of voles vs volez
Shared letters: elov. Private to "voles": s. Private to "volez": z.
"voles" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "volez" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "voles" for "volez" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "voles" or "volez" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "voles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "volez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #21,090 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "voles" and "volez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "visez vs volez". 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 #21,090 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.