découpéevsdécouperConfusable pair

Quick tell: découpée is a adjective, découper is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“découpée” is an adjective and “découper” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,326
“découpée” frequency rank
#15,361
“découper” frequency rank
44687
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature découpée découper
Definition Féminin singulier de découpé. Couper par morceaux une pièce de viande ou détacher un à un les membres d’une pièce de volaille, de gibier.

Same sound, different letters: découpée vs découper

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. découpée (CVCVVCVV) and découper (CVCVVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
découpée
8 ch
découper

Homophone desk: découpée vs découper

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: découpée and découper carry the same recorded pronunciation, \de.ku.pe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44687, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

découpée is recorded at frequency rank #29,326, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.ku.pe\. 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 44687, this pair ranks #208,597 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of découpée vs découper

Shared letters: cdeopué. Private to "découpée": -. Private to "découper": r.

"découpée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVV  ·  "découper" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "découpée" and "découper" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "découpée" is an adjective and "découper" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "découpée" or "découper" show up more?
"découper" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,361 in our French list, against #29,326 for "découpée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "découpée" 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 #208,597 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "découpée" and "découper" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "découpée vs dégoûtée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #208,597 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