Which to use
“décides” is a verb and “dérives” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,995
- “décides” frequency rank
- #11,395
- “dérives” frequency rank
- 30390
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | décides | dérives |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Deuxième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de décider. | Pluriel de dérive. |
Where the eye mixes décides and dérives
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. décides and dérives follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between décides and dérives
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: décides is \de.sid\ while dérives is \de.ʁiv\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30390, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
décides is recorded at frequency rank #18,995, classified as averb, pronounced \de.sid\. dérives is at rank #11,395, tagged as anoun, 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 30390, this pair ranks #310,639 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of décides vs dérives
Shared letters: deisé. Private to "décides": c. Private to "dérives": rv.
"décides" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "dérives" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "décides" and "dérives" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "décides" or "dérives" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "décides" and "dérives" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "décides" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dérives" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #310,639 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "décides" and "dérives" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décides vs déçues". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #310,639 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.