débarquantvsdémarquentTell them apart

Which to use

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

#43,393
“débarquant” frequency rank
#46,129
“démarquent” frequency rank
89522
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature débarquant démarquent
Definition Participe présent du verbe débarquer. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe démarquer.

Where the eye mixes débarquant and démarquent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. débarquant and démarquent follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

10 ch
débarquant
10 ch
démarquent

Why the eye confuses débarquant with démarquent

A purely visual mix-up. débarquant (\de.baʁ.kɑ̃\) and démarquent (\de.maʁk\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 89522, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

débarquant is recorded at frequency rank #43,393, classified as averb, pronounced \de.baʁ.kɑ̃\. démarquent is at rank #46,129, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.maʁk\.

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 89522, this pair ranks #5,698 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of débarquant vs démarquent

Shared letters: adnqrtué. Private to "débarquant": b. Private to "démarquent": em.

"débarquant" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVVCC  ·  "démarquent" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "débarquant" and "démarquent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\de.baʁ.kɑ̃\ versus \de.maʁk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "débarquant" or "démarquent" show up more?
"débarquant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,393 in our French list, against #46,129 for "démarquent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "débarquant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "démarquent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,698 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "débarquant" and "démarquent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "démarquent vs démarrent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #5,698 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