découvresvsdécouvritWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#30,988
“découvres” frequency rank
#19,816
“découvrit” frequency rank
50804
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature découvres découvrit
Definition Deuxième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de découvrir. Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de découvrir.

Where the eye mixes découvres and découvrit

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

9 ch
découvres
9 ch
découvrit

Why the eye confuses découvres with découvrit

A purely visual mix-up. découvres (\de.kuvʁ\) and découvrit (\de.ku.vʁi\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50804, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

découvres is recorded at frequency rank #30,988, classified as averb, pronounced \de.kuvʁ\. découvrit is at rank #19,816, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ku.vʁi\.

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 50804, this pair ranks #159,845 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of découvres vs découvrit

Shared letters: cdoruvé. Private to "découvres": es. Private to "découvrit": it.

"découvres" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCCVC  ·  "découvrit" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "découvres" and "découvrit" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\de.kuvʁ\ versus \de.ku.vʁi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "découvres" or "découvrit" show up more?
"découvrit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,816 in our French list, against #30,988 for "découvres". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "découvres" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "découvrit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #159,845 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "découvres" and "découvrit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "découvrais vs découvres". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #159,845 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