dégageaitvsdégagentWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#36,815
“dégageait” frequency rank
#20,704
“dégagent” frequency rank
57519
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dégageait dégagent
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de dégager. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de dégager.

Where the eye mixes dégageait and dégagent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. dégageait runs 9 letters (CVCVCVVVC) against dégagent's 8 (CVCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
dégageait
8 ch
dégagent

Visual trap between dégageait and dégagent

A purely visual mix-up. dégageait (\de.ɡa.ʒɛ\) and dégagent (\de.ɡaʒ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57519, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dégageait is recorded at frequency rank #36,815, classified as averb, pronounced \de.ɡa.ʒɛ\. dégagent is at rank #20,704, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ɡaʒ\.

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 57519, this pair ranks #114,551 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dégageait vs dégagent

Shared letters: adegté. Private to "dégageait": i. Private to "dégagent": n.

"dégageait" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVVVC  ·  "dégagent" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dégageait" and "dégagent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\de.ɡa.ʒɛ\ versus \de.ɡaʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dégageait" or "dégagent"?
"dégagent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,704 in our French list, against #36,815 for "dégageait". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dégageait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dégagent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #114,551 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dégageait" and "dégagent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dégageait vs dégageant". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #114,551 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