déclaréevsdéclinéeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: déclarée is a adjective, déclinée is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“déclarée” is an adjective and “déclinée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,990
“déclarée” frequency rank
#37,289
“déclinée” frequency rank
46279
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature déclarée déclinée
Definition Féminin singulier de déclaré. Participe passé féminin singulier de décliner.

Where the eye mixes déclarée and déclinée

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

8 ch
déclarée
8 ch
déclinée

Why the eye confuses déclarée with déclinée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: déclarée is \de.kla.ʁe\ while déclinée is \de.kli.ne\. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46279, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

déclarée is recorded at frequency rank #8,990, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.kla.ʁe\. déclinée is at rank #37,289, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.kli.ne\.

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 46279, this pair ranks #196,175 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of déclarée vs déclinée

Shared letters: cdelé. Private to "déclarée": ar. Private to "déclinée": in.

"déclarée" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV  ·  "déclinée" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "déclarée" and "déclinée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "déclarée" is an adjective and "déclinée" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "déclarée" or "déclinée" show up more?
"déclarée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,990 in our French list, against #37,289 for "déclinée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "déclarée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "déclinée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #196,175 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "déclarée" and "déclinée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déclinée vs décriée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #196,175 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