découpéevsdécouvreWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#29,326
“découpée” frequency rank
#2,773
“découvre” frequency rank
32099
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature découpée découvre
Definition Féminin singulier de découpé. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de découvrir.

Where the eye mixes découpée and découvre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. découpée (CVCVVCVV) and découvre (CVCVVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
découpée
8 ch
découvre

Visual trap between découpée and découvre

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: découpée is \de.ku.pe\ while découvre is \de.kuvʁ\. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32099, 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\. découvre is at rank #2,773, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.kuvʁ\.

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 32099, this pair ranks #299,574 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of découpée vs découvre

Shared letters: cdeoué. Private to "découpée": p. Private to "découvre": rv.

"découpée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVV  ·  "découvre" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "découpée" for "découvre" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "découpée" is an adjective and "découvre" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "découpée" or "découvre"?
"découvre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,773 in our French list, against #29,326 for "découpée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "découpée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "découvre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #299,574 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "découpée" and "découvre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "découpée vs dégoûtée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #299,574 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