dégâtvsdéjàWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: dégât is a noun, déjà is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#24,555
“dégât” frequency rank
#122
“déjà” frequency rank
24677
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dégât déjà
Definition Dommage, détérioration amenés par un accident ou une cause violente. Indique un changement d’état ou une atteinte du critère jusqu’à présent ou jusqu’alors.

Where the eye mixes dégât and déjà

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dégât runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against déjà's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
dégât
4 ch
déjà

Why the eye confuses dégât with déjà

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dégât is \de.ɡa\ while déjà is \de.ʒa\. 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 (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24677, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dégât is recorded at frequency rank #24,555, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.ɡa\. déjà is at rank #122, tagged as anadv, pronounced \de.ʒa\.

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 24677, this pair ranks #345,240 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dégât vs déjà

Shared letters: dé. Private to "dégât": gtâ. Private to "déjà": jà.

"dégât" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "déjà" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dégât" and "déjà" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dégât" is a noun and "déjà" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dégât" vs "déjà" - which ranks higher?
"déjà" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #122 in our French list, against #24,555 for "dégât". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "dégât" and "déjà" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dégât" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "déjà" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #345,240 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dégât" and "déjà" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dégât vs DGA". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #345,240 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