Which to use
“début” and “dent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #335
- “début” frequency rank
- #5,965
- “dent” frequency rank
- 6300
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | début | dent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Commencement. | Petit organe composé d’émail, de dentine et d’une pulpe, enchâssés dans la mâchoire, qui sert à inciser, à déchirer, à mâcher les aliments et à mordre. |
Where the eye mixes début and dent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: début vs dent
A purely visual mix-up. début (\de.by\) and dent (\dɑ̃\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6300, 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\. dent is at rank #5,965, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɑ̃\.
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 6300, this pair ranks #426,619 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of début vs dent
Shared letters: dt. Private to "début": bué. Private to "dent": en.
"début" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "dent" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dent ← ddent · dennt · dentt · detn · dnet · ednt
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "début" for "dent" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "début" or "dent" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "début" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #426,619 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "début" and "dent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "denim vs dent". 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 #426,619 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.