Which to use
“décident” and “dérivent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,605
- “décident” frequency rank
- #39,274
- “dérivent” frequency rank
- 45879
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | décident | dérivent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de décider. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de dériver. |
Where the eye mixes décident and dérivent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. décident and dérivent follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: décident vs dérivent
A purely visual mix-up. décident (\de.sid\) and dérivent (\de.ʁiv\) 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 45879, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
décident is recorded at frequency rank #6,605, classified as averb, pronounced \de.sid\. dérivent is at rank #39,274, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ʁiv\.
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 45879, this pair ranks #199,334 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of décident vs dérivent
Shared letters: deinté. Private to "décident": c. Private to "dérivent": rv.
"décident" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC · "dérivent" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "décident" and "dérivent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "décident" or "dérivent" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "décident" and "dérivent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "décident" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dérivent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #199,334 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "décident" and "dérivent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dérivant vs dérivent". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #199,334 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.