décidezvsdésirezTell them apart

Which to use

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

#18,996
“décidez” frequency rank
#11,397
“désirez” frequency rank
30393
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature décidez désirez
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de décider. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de désirer.

Where the eye mixes décidez and désirez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. décidez and désirez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
décidez
7 ch
désirez

Visual trap between décidez and désirez

A purely visual mix-up. décidez (\de.si.de\) and désirez (\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 30393, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

décidez is recorded at frequency rank #18,996, classified as averb, pronounced \de.si.de\. désirez is at rank #11,397, tagged as averb, 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 30393, this pair ranks #310,618 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of décidez vs désirez

Shared letters: deizé. Private to "décidez": c. Private to "désirez": rs.

"décidez" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "désirez" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "décidez" and "désirez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
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.
In ordinary French text, does "décidez" or "désirez" show up more?
"désirez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,397 in our French list, against #18,996 for "décidez". 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 "décidez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "désirez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #310,618 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "décidez" and "désirez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décideur vs décidez". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #310,618 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