déboulevsdérouléeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: déboule is a verb, déroulée is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“déboule” is a verb and “déroulée” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,835
“déboule” frequency rank
#10,862
“déroulée” frequency rank
53697
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature déboule déroulée
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de débouler. Groupe de personnes se déplaçant ensemble.

Where the eye mixes déboule and déroulée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. déboule runs 7 letters (CVCVVCV) against déroulée's 8 (CVCVVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
déboule
8 ch
déroulée

Visual trap between déboule and déroulée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: déboule is \de.bul\ while déroulée is \de.ʁu.le\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53697, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

déboule is recorded at frequency rank #42,835, classified as averb, pronounced \de.bul\. déroulée is at rank #10,862, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.ʁu.le\.

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 53697, this pair ranks #139,008 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of déboule vs déroulée

Shared letters: deloué. Private to "déboule": b. Private to "déroulée": r.

"déboule" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "déroulée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "déboule" for "déroulée" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "déboule" is a verb and "déroulée" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "déboule" or "déroulée" show up more?
"déroulée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,862 in our French list, against #42,835 for "déboule". 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 "déboule" and "déroulée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "déboule" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "déroulée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #139,008 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "déboule" and "déroulée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déboule vs déroula". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #139,008 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