décidéesvsdésiréesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#26,699
“décidées” frequency rank
#46,732
“désirées” frequency rank
73431
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature décidées désirées
Definition Féminin pluriel de décidé. Féminin pluriel de désiré.

Where the eye mixes décidées and désirées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. décidées and désirées follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
décidées
8 ch
désirées

Why the eye confuses décidées with désirées

A purely visual mix-up. décidées (\de.si.de\) and désirées (\de.zi.ʁe\) 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 73431, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

décidées is recorded at frequency rank #26,699, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.si.de\. désirées is at rank #46,732, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.zi.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 73431, this pair ranks #40,492 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of décidées vs désirées

Shared letters: deisé. Private to "décidées": c. Private to "désirées": r.

"décidées" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "désirées" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "décidées" and "désirées" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\de.si.de\ versus \de.zi.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "décidées" or "désirées"?
"décidées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,699 in our French list, against #46,732 for "désirées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "décidées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "désirées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,492 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "décidées" and "désirées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "désirées vs désireuses". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #40,492 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