découdrevsdécouvreConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#29,736
“découdre” frequency rank
#2,773
“découvre” frequency rank
32509
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature découdre découvre
Definition Défaire ce qui est cousu. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de découvrir.

Where the eye mixes découdre and découvre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. découdre and découvre follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
découdre
8 ch
découvre

Visual trap between découdre and découvre

A purely visual mix-up. découdre (\de.kudʁ\) and découvre (\de.kuvʁ\) 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 a single letter - d in “découdre” becomes v in “découvre”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32509, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

découdre is recorded at frequency rank #29,736, classified as averb, pronounced \de.kudʁ\. découvre is at rank #2,773, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.kuvʁ\.

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 32509, this pair ranks #296,798 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of découdre vs découvre

Shared letters: cdeorué. Private to "découdre": -. Private to "découvre": v.

"découdre" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCCV  ·  "découvre" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "découdre" and "découvre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\de.kudʁ\ versus \de.kuvʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "découdre" or "découvre"?
"découvre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,773 in our French list, against #29,736 for "découdre". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "découdre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "découvre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #296,798 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "découdre" and "découvre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décore vs découdre". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #296,798 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