dégâtvsdépartTell them apart

Which to use

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

#24,555
“dégât” frequency rank
#769
“départ” frequency rank
25324
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dégât départ
Definition Dommage, détérioration amenés par un accident ou une cause violente. Moment précis de l'action de partir.

Where the eye mixes dégât and départ

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. dégât runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against départ's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
dégât
6 ch
départ

Visual trap between dégât and départ

A purely visual mix-up. dégât (\de.ɡa\) and départ (\de.paʁ\) 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 25324, 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\. départ is at rank #769, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.paʁ\.

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 25324, this pair ranks #341,505 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dégât vs départ

Shared letters: dté. Private to "dégât": gâ. Private to "départ": apr.

"dégât" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "départ" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dégât" for "départ" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.ɡa\ versus \de.paʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dégât" or "départ"?
"départ" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #769 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "dégât" and "départ" 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 "départ" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #341,505 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dégât" and "départ" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dégât vs DGA". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #341,505 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