Which to use
“découle” is a verb and “décousu” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,390
- “découle” frequency rank
- #48,460
- “décousu” frequency rank
- 59850
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | découle | décousu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de découler. | Caractérise des propos sans suite, un style qui n’a pas de liaison, des événements non reliés entre eux. |
Where the eye mixes découle and décousu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. découle and décousu follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between découle and décousu
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: découle is \de.kul\ while décousu is \de.ku.zy\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59850, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
découle is recorded at frequency rank #11,390, classified as averb, pronounced \de.kul\. décousu is at rank #48,460, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.ku.zy\.
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 59850, this pair ranks #100,859 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of découle vs décousu
Shared letters: cdoué. Private to "découle": el. Private to "décousu": s.
"découle" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV · "décousu" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "découle" and "décousu" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "découle" or "décousu" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "découle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "décousu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #100,859 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "découle" and "décousu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déchus vs décousu". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #100,859 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.