dèchevsdéçuesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dèche is a noun, déçues is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dèche” is a noun and “déçues” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,607
“dèche” frequency rank
#46,735
“déçues” frequency rank
96342
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dèche déçues
Definition Misère, gêne financière. Féminin pluriel de déçu.

Where the eye mixes dèche and déçues

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dèche runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against déçues's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
dèche
6 ch
déçues

Look-alike desk: dèche vs déçues

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dèche is \dɛʃ\ while déçues is \de.sy\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 96342, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dèche is recorded at frequency rank #49,607, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɛʃ\. déçues is at rank #46,735, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.sy\.

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 96342, this pair ranks #715 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dèche vs déçues

Shared letters: de. Private to "dèche": chè. Private to "déçues": suçé.

"dèche" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "déçues" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dèche" and "déçues" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dèche" is a noun and "déçues" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dèche" or "déçues"?
"déçues" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #46,735 in our French list, against #49,607 for "dèche". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dèche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "déçues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #715 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dèche" and "déçues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dèche vs derme". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #715 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