dégel vs devez, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“dégel” is a noun and “devez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,070
“dégel” frequency rank: #2,569
“devez” frequency rank: 36639
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	dégel	devez
Definition	Fonte naturelle de la glace et de la neige par l’adoucissement de la température, qui remonte au-dessus de zéro degrés Celsius.	Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de devoir.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set dégel and devez apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

dégel

5 ch

devez

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dégel is \de.ʒɛl\ while devez is \də.ve\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36639, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dégel is recorded at frequency rank #34,070, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.ʒɛl\. devez is at rank #2,569, tagged as averb, pronounced \də.ve\.

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 36639, this pair ranks #268,180 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dégel vs devez

Shared letters: de. Private to "dégel": glé. Private to "devez": vz.

"dégel" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "devez" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

devez ← ddevez · deevz · devezz · devvez · devze · dveez · edvez

Frequency comparison

dégel#34,070

devez#2,569

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dégel" and "devez" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dégel" is a noun and "devez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "dégel" or "devez"?

"devez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,569 in our French list, against #34,070 for "dégel". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering dégel vs devez

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “dégel”; for a verb, it's “devez”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “dégel” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable