volesvsvoyezWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#36,652
“voles” frequency rank
#1,981
“voyez” frequency rank
38633
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature voles voyez
Definition Pluriel de vole. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de voir.

Where the eye mixes voles and voyez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
voles
5 ch
voyez

Why the eye confuses voles with voyez

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: voles is \vɔl\ while voyez is \vwa.je\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38633, 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\. voyez is at rank #1,981, tagged as averb, pronounced \vwa.je\.

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 38633, this pair ranks #253,910 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of voles vs voyez

Shared letters: eov. Private to "voles": ls. Private to "voyez": yz.

"voles" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "voyez" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • volesovles · vloes · voels · voless · volles · volse · vvoles
  • voyezovyez · voeyz · voyezz · voyyez · voyze · vvoyez · vyoez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "voles" for "voyez" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "voles" is a noun and "voyez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "voles" or "voyez"?
"voyez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,981 in our French list, against #36,652 for "voles". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "voles" and "voyez" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "voles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "voyez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #253,910 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "voles" and "voyez" 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 #253,910 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