découpéevsdérouléeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#29,326
“découpée” frequency rank
#10,862
“déroulée” frequency rank
40188
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature découpée déroulée
Definition Féminin singulier de découpé. Groupe de personnes se déplaçant ensemble.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set découpée and déroulée apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch
découpée
8 ch
déroulée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: découpée is \de.ku.pe\ while déroulée is \de.ʁu.le\. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40188, 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\. déroulée is at rank #10,862, tagged as anoun, 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 40188, this pair ranks #242,364 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of découpée vs déroulée

Shared letters: deoué. Private to "découpée": cp. Private to "déroulée": lr.

"découpée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVV  ·  "déroulée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVV

Frequency comparison

découpée#29,326
déroulée#10,862

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "découpée" and "déroulée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "découpée" is an adjective and "déroulée" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "découpée" or "déroulée"?
"déroulée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,862 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.

Remembering découpée vs déroulée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “découpée”; for a noun, it's “déroulée”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “découpée” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list