Which to use
“voleur” is a noun and “vouer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,770
- “voleur” frequency rank
- #43,728
- “vouer” frequency rank
- 51498
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | voleur | vouer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Homme qui effectue un vol, qui dérobe, s’approprie le bien d’autrui, ou l’a déjà fait. | Promettre par vœu. |
Where the eye mixes voleur and vouer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. voleur runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against vouer's 5 (CVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: voleur vs vouer
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: voleur is \vɔ.lœʁ\ while vouer is \vwe\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51498, 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\. vouer is at rank #43,728, tagged as averb, pronounced \vwe\.
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 51498, this pair ranks #154,541 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of voleur vs vouer
Shared letters: eoruv. Private to "voleur": l. Private to "vouer": -.
"voleur" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "vouer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "voleur" for "vouer" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "voleur" or "vouer" 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 "voleur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "vouer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #154,541 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "voleur" and "vouer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vouer 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 #154,541 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.