Which to use
“début” and “délit” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #335
- “début” frequency rank
- #4,934
- “délit” frequency rank
- 5269
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | début | délit |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Commencement. | Toute infraction, consciente ou non, aux lois. |
Where the eye mixes début and délit
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between début and délit
A purely visual mix-up. début (\de.by\) and délit (\de.li\) 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 5269, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
début is recorded at frequency rank #335, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.by\. délit is at rank #4,934, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.li\.
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 5269, this pair ranks #429,477 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of début vs délit
Shared letters: dté. Private to "début": bu. Private to "délit": il.
"début" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "délit" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "début" for "délit" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "début" or "délit" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "début" and "délit" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "début" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "délit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #429,477 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "début" and "délit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "délit vs démolit". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #429,477 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.