dedansvsdevantsTell them apart

Quick tell: dedans is a adverb, devants is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dedans” is an adverb and “devants” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,327
“dedans” frequency rank
#23,169
“devants” frequency rank
24496
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dedans devants
Definition À l’intérieur. Dans la place dont on vient de parler. Pluriel de devant.

Where the eye mixes dedans and devants

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
dedans
7 ch
devants

Look-alike desk: dedans vs devants

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dedans is \də.dɑ̃\ while devants is \də.vɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24496, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dedans is recorded at frequency rank #1,327, classified as anadv, pronounced \də.dɑ̃\. devants is at rank #23,169, tagged as anoun, pronounced \də.vɑ̃\.

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 24496, this pair ranks #346,292 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dedans vs devants

Shared letters: adens. Private to "dedans": -. Private to "devants": tv.

"dedans" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "devants" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dedansddeans · ddedans · deadns · dedanns · dedanss · dedasn · deddans · dednas
  • devantsddevants · deavnts · devannts · devanst · devantss · devantts · devatns · devnats

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dedans" and "devants" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dedans" is an adverb and "devants" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dedans" vs "devants" - which ranks higher?
"dedans" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,327 in our French list, against #23,169 for "devants". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dedans" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devants" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #346,292 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dedans" and "devants" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devants vs déviants". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #346,292 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