décente vs delete, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“décente” is an adjective and “delete” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,734
“décente” frequency rank: #42,817
“delete” frequency rank: 72551
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	décente	delete
Definition	Féminin singulier de décent.	Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de deleter.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set décente and delete apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch

décente

6 ch

delete

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: décente is \de.sɑ̃t\ while delete is \di.lit\. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72551, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

décente is recorded at frequency rank #29,734, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.sɑ̃t\. 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 72551, this pair ranks #43,619 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of décente vs delete

Shared letters: det. Private to "décente": cné. Private to "delete": l.

"décente" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "delete" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

delete ← ddelete · deelte · deleet · delette · dellete · deltee · dleete · edlete

Frequency comparison

décente#29,734

delete#42,817

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "décente" and "delete" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "décente" is an adjective and "delete" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "décente" or "delete"?

"décente" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,734 in our French list, against #42,817 for "delete". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering décente vs delete

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “décente”; for a verb, it's “delete”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “décente” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable