déchargervsdéclarerConfusable pair

Which to use

“décharger” and “déclarer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#20,425
“décharger” frequency rank
#5,028
“déclarer” frequency rank
25453
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature décharger déclarer
Definition Ôter ce qui formait la charge d’un navire, d’un bateau, d’une voiture de transport, d’une bête de somme, etc. Faire connaître d’une façon manifeste.

Where the eye mixes décharger and déclarer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. décharger runs 9 letters (CVCCVCCVC) against déclarer's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
décharger
8 ch
déclarer

Look-alike desk: décharger vs déclarer

A purely visual mix-up. décharger (\de.ʃaʁ.ʒe\) and déclarer (\de.kla.ʁe\) 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 25453, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

décharger is recorded at frequency rank #20,425, classified as averb, pronounced \de.ʃaʁ.ʒe\. déclarer is at rank #5,028, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.kla.ʁe\.

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 25453, this pair ranks #340,782 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of décharger vs déclarer

Shared letters: acderé. Private to "décharger": gh. Private to "déclarer": l.

"décharger" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC  ·  "déclarer" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "décharger" for "déclarer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.ʃaʁ.ʒe\ versus \de.kla.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "décharger" or "déclarer" show up more?
"déclarer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,028 in our French list, against #20,425 for "décharger". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "décharger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "déclarer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #340,782 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "décharger" and "déclarer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "declare vs déclarer". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #340,782 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list