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 eye mixes dégel and devez
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dégel and devez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses dégel with devez
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
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dégel" and "devez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "dégel" vs "devez" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "dégel" and "devez" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dégel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "devez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #268,180 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dégel" and "devez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décèle vs dégel". 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 #268,180 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.