declarevsdéplaireConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#49,591
“declare” frequency rank
#21,299
“déplaire” frequency rank
70890
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature declare déplaire
Definition Déclarer. Être désagréable, en parlant des personnes.

Where the eye mixes declare and déplaire

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. declare runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against déplaire's 8 (CVCCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
declare
8 ch
déplaire

Visual trap between declare and déplaire

A purely visual mix-up. declare ([dɪˈkleər]) and déplaire (\de.plɛʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70890, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

declare is recorded at frequency rank #49,591, classified as averb, pronounced [dɪˈkleər]. déplaire is at rank #21,299, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.plɛʁ\.

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 70890, this pair ranks #49,587 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of declare vs déplaire

Shared letters: adelr. Private to "declare": c. Private to "déplaire": ipé.

"declare" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "déplaire" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • declare ← dcelare · ddeclare · decalre · decclare · declaer · declarre · decllare · declrae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "declare" for "déplaire" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([dɪˈkleər] versus \de.plɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "declare" vs "déplaire" - which ranks higher?
"déplaire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,299 in our French list, against #49,591 for "declare". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "declare" and "déplaire" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "declare" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "déplaire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,587 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "declare" and "déplaire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "declare vs déclarera". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #49,587 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