Which to use
“débuts” and “dégâts” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,144
- “débuts” frequency rank
- #4,228
- “dégâts” frequency rank
- 8372
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | débuts | dégâts |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de début. | Pluriel de dégât. |
Where the eye mixes débuts and dégâts
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. débuts and dégâts follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: débuts vs dégâts
A purely visual mix-up. débuts (\de.by\) and dégâts (\de.ɡa\) 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 8372, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
débuts is recorded at frequency rank #4,144, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.by\. dégâts is at rank #4,228, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.ɡa\.
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 8372, this pair ranks #420,261 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of débuts vs dégâts
Shared letters: dsté. Private to "débuts": bu. Private to "dégâts": gâ.
"débuts" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "dégâts" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "débuts" and "dégâts" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "débuts" or "dégâts" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "débuts" and "dégâts" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "débuts" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dégâts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #420,261 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "débuts" and "dégâts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "débuts vs déçues". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #420,261 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.