voudravsvoudraisWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“voudra” and “voudrais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#7,132
“voudra” frequency rank
#2,456
“voudrais” frequency rank
9588
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature voudra voudrais
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du futur de vouloir. Première personne du singulier du conditionnel de vouloir.

Where the eye mixes voudra and voudrais

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. voudra runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against voudrais's 8 (CVVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
voudra
8 ch
voudrais

Why the eye confuses voudra with voudrais

A purely visual mix-up. voudra (\vu.dʁa\) and voudrais (\vu.dʁɛ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “voudra” sits inside “voudrais”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9588, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

voudra is recorded at frequency rank #7,132, classified as averb, pronounced \vu.dʁa\. voudrais is at rank #2,456, tagged as averb, pronounced \vu.dʁɛ\.

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 9588, this pair ranks #416,120 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of voudra vs voudrais

Shared letters: adoruv. Private to "voudra": -. Private to "voudrais": is.

"voudra" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "voudrais" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • voudra ← ovudra · vodura · voudar · vouddra · voudrra · vourda · vuodra · vvoudra
  • voudrais ← ovudrais · vodurais · voudaris · vouddrais · voudraiss · voudrasi · voudrias · voudrrais

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "voudra" for "voudrais" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\vu.dʁa\ versus \vu.dʁɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "voudra" vs "voudrais" - which ranks higher?
"voudrais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,456 in our French list, against #7,132 for "voudra". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "voudra" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "voudrais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #416,120 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "voudra" and "voudrais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "voudra 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 #416,120 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