Which to use
“décidaient” and “désiraient” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,851
- “décidaient” frequency rank
- #42,308
- “désiraient” frequency rank
- 90159
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | décidaient | désiraient |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif imparfait de décider. | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de désirer. |
Where the eye mixes décidaient and désiraient
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. décidaient and désiraient follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVVVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between décidaient and désiraient
A purely visual mix-up. décidaient (\de.si.dɛ\) and désiraient (\de.zi.ʁɛ\) 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 90159, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
décidaient is recorded at frequency rank #47,851, classified as averb, pronounced \de.si.dɛ\. désiraient is at rank #42,308, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.zi.ʁɛ\.
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 90159, this pair ranks #5,084 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of décidaient vs désiraient
Shared letters: adeinté. Private to "décidaient": c. Private to "désiraient": rs.
"décidaient" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVVCC · "désiraient" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVVCC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "décidaient" and "désiraient" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "décidaient" or "désiraient" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "décidaient" and "désiraient" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "décidaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "désiraient" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #5,084 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "décidaient" and "désiraient" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "désiraient vs désirais". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #5,084 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.