Which to use
“débute” and “delete” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,188
- “débute” frequency rank
- #42,817
- “delete” frequency rank
- 49005
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | débute | delete |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de débuter. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de deleter. |
Where the eye mixes débute and delete
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. débute and delete follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses débute with delete
A purely visual mix-up. débute (\de.byt\) and delete (\di.lit\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49005, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
débute is recorded at frequency rank #6,188, classified as averb, pronounced \de.byt\. delete is at rank #42,817, tagged as averb, pronounced \di.lit\.
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 49005, this pair ranks #174,258 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of débute vs delete
Shared letters: det. Private to "débute": bué. Private to "delete": l.
"débute" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "delete" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- delete ← ddelete · deelte · deleet · delette · dellete · deltee · dleete · edlete
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "débute" for "delete" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "débute" or "delete" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "débute" and "delete" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "débute" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "delete" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #174,258 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "débute" and "delete" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "delete vs désuète". 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 #174,258 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.