voleurvsvoleursConfusable pair

Quick tell: voleur is a noun, voleurs is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#7,770
“voleur” frequency rank
#7,771
“voleurs” frequency rank
15541
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature voleur voleurs
Definition Homme qui effectue un vol, qui dérobe, s’approprie le bien d’autrui, ou l’a déjà fait. Masculin pluriel de l’adjectif voleur.

Same sound, different letters: voleur vs voleurs

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. voleur runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against voleurs's 7 (CVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
voleur
7 ch
voleurs

Homophone desk: voleur vs voleurs

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: voleur and voleurs carry the same recorded pronunciation, \vɔ.lœʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “voleur” sits inside “voleurs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15541, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

voleur is recorded at frequency rank #7,770, classified as anoun, pronounced \vɔ.lœʁ\. voleurs is at rank #7,771, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vɔ.lœʁ\.

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 15541, this pair ranks #391,899 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of voleur vs voleurs

Shared letters: eloruv. Private to "voleur": -. Private to "voleurs": s.

"voleur" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "voleurs" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • voleur ← ovleur · vloeur · voelur · voleru · voleurr · volleur · voluer · vvoleur
  • voleurs ← ovleurs · vloeurs · voelurs · volerus · voleurrs · voleurss · voleusr · volleurs

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "voleur" and "voleurs" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "voleur" is a noun and "voleurs" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "voleur" vs "voleurs" - which ranks higher?
"voleur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,770 in our French list, against #7,771 for "voleurs". 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 "voleur" / "voleurs". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "voleur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "voleurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #391,899 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "voleur" and "voleurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "voleur vs vouer". 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 #391,899 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