Which to use
“dégagent” and “devaient” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,704
- “dégagent” frequency rank
- #3,249
- “devaient” frequency rank
- 23953
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dégagent | devaient |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de dégager. | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de devoir. |
Where the eye mixes dégagent and devaient
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses dégagent with devaient
A purely visual mix-up. dégagent (\de.ɡaʒ\) and devaient (\də.vɛ\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23953, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dégagent is recorded at frequency rank #20,704, classified as averb, pronounced \de.ɡaʒ\. devaient is at rank #3,249, tagged as averb, pronounced \də.vɛ\.
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 23953, this pair ranks #349,513 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dégagent vs devaient
Shared letters: adent. Private to "dégagent": gé. Private to "devaient": iv.
"dégagent" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC · "devaient" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- devaient ← ddevaient · deavient · devaeint · devaiennt · devaientt · devaietn · devainet · deviaent
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dégagent" and "devaient" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "dégagent" or "devaient" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "dégagent" and "devaient" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dégagent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "devaient" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #349,513 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dégagent" and "devaient" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décadent vs dégagent". 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 #349,513 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.