découlervsdécouperWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#35,908
“découler” frequency rank
#15,361
“découper” frequency rank
51269
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature découler découper
Definition Couler peu à peu et de suite. Couper par morceaux une pièce de viande ou détacher un à un les membres d’une pièce de volaille, de gibier.

Where the eye mixes découler and découper

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

8 ch
découler
8 ch
découper

Look-alike desk: découler vs découper

A purely visual mix-up. découler (\de.ku.le\) and découper (\de.ku.pe\) 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 - l in “découler” becomes p in “découper”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51269, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

découler is recorded at frequency rank #35,908, classified as averb, pronounced \de.ku.le\. découper is at rank #15,361, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ku.pe\.

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 51269, this pair ranks #156,310 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of découler vs découper

Shared letters: cdeorué. Private to "découler": l. Private to "découper": p.

"découler" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC  ·  "découper" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "découler" and "découper" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\de.ku.le\ versus \de.ku.pe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "découler" vs "découper" - which ranks higher?
"découper" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,361 in our French list, against #35,908 for "découler". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "découler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "découper" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #156,310 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "découler" and "découper" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "découler vs dérouter". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #156,310 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