Which to use
“découler” and “dérouler” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,908
- “découler” frequency rank
- #11,956
- “dérouler” frequency rank
- 47864
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | découler | dérouler |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Couler peu à peu et de suite. | Étendre ce qui était roulé et le mettre de son long. |
Where the eye mixes découler and dérouler
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. découler and dérouler follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: découler vs dérouler
A purely visual mix-up. découler (\de.ku.le\) and dérouler (\de.ʁu.le\) 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 - c in “découler” becomes r in “dérouler”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47864, 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\. dérouler is at rank #11,956, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ʁu.le\.
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 47864, this pair ranks #183,547 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of découler vs dérouler
Shared letters: delorué. Private to "découler": c. Private to "dérouler": -.
"découler" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC · "dérouler" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "découler" and "dérouler" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "découler" or "dérouler" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "découler" and "dérouler" 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 "dérouler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #183,547 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "découler" and "dérouler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "découler vs dérouter". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #183,547 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.