découlevsdéroulaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#11,390
“découle” frequency rank
#47,858
“déroula” frequency rank
59248
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature découle déroula
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de découler. Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de dérouler.

Where the eye mixes découle and déroula

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

7 ch
découle
7 ch
déroula

Look-alike desk: découle vs déroula

A purely visual mix-up. découle (\de.kul\) and déroula (\de.ʁu.la\) 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 59248, 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\. déroula is at rank #47,858, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ʁu.la\.

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 59248, this pair ranks #104,233 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of découle vs déroula

Shared letters: dloué. Private to "découle": ce. Private to "déroula": ar.

"découle" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "déroula" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "découle" for "déroula" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.kul\ versus \de.ʁu.la\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "découle" or "déroula" show up more?
"découle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,390 in our French list, against #47,858 for "déroula". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "découle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "déroula" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #104,233 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "découle" and "déroula" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "défoule vs déroula". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #104,233 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