voleurvsvoyerWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#7,770
“voleur” frequency rank
#34,361
“voyer” frequency rank
42131
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature voleur voyer
Definition Homme qui effectue un vol, qui dérobe, s’approprie le bien d’autrui, ou l’a déjà fait. Relatif à la voirie.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set voleur and voyer apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
voleur
5 ch
voyer

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: voleur is \vɔ.lœʁ\ while voyer is \vwa.je\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42131, 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\. voyer is at rank #34,361, tagged as anadj, 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 42131, this pair ranks #227,989 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of voleur vs voyer

Shared letters: eorv. Private to "voleur": lu. Private to "voyer": y.

"voleur" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "voyer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • voleurovleur · vloeur · voelur · voleru · voleurr · volleur · voluer · vvoleur
  • voyerovyer · voeyr · voyerr · voyre · voyyer · vvoyer · vyoer

Frequency comparison

voleur#7,770
voyer#34,361

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "voleur" and "voyer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "voleur" is a noun and "voyer" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "voleur" or "voyer"?
"voleur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,770 in our French list, against #34,361 for "voyer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering voleur vs voyer

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “voleur”; for an adjective, it's “voyer”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “voleur” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list