décrochevsdécrochentWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,310
“décroche” frequency rank
#36,812
“décrochent” frequency rank
46122
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature décroche décrochent
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de décrocher. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de décrocher.

Same sound, different letters: décroche vs décrochent

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. décroche runs 8 letters (CVCCVCCV) against décrochent's 10 (CVCCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
décroche
10 ch
décrochent

Homophone desk: décroche vs décrochent

This is the hard kind. décroche and décrochent are pronounced identically (\de.kʁɔʃ\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “décroche” sits inside “décrochent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46122, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

décroche is recorded at frequency rank #9,310, classified as averb, pronounced \de.kʁɔʃ\. décrochent is at rank #36,812, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.kʁɔʃ\.

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 46122, this pair ranks #197,427 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of décroche vs décrochent

Shared letters: cdehoré. Private to "décroche": -. Private to "décrochent": nt.

"décroche" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "décrochent" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "décroche" and "décrochent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\de.kʁɔʃ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "décroche" vs "décrochent" - which ranks higher?
"décroche" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,310 in our French list, against #36,812 for "décrochent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "décroche" / "décrochent". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "décroche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "décrochent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #197,427 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "décroche" and "décrochent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décrochant vs décrochent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #197,427 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