déguisevsdepuisTell them apart

Quick tell: déguise is a verb, depuis is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“déguise” is a verb and “depuis” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,578
“déguise” frequency rank
#112
“depuis” frequency rank
30690
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature déguise depuis
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de déguiser. À partir de.

Where the eye mixes déguise and depuis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. déguise runs 7 letters (CVCVVCV) against depuis's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
déguise
6 ch
depuis

Visual trap between déguise and depuis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: déguise is \de.ɡiz\ while depuis is \də.pɥi\. 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 (verb vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30690, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

déguise is recorded at frequency rank #30,578, classified as averb, pronounced \de.ɡiz\. depuis is at rank #112, tagged as aprep, pronounced \də.pɥi\.

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 30690, this pair ranks #308,596 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of déguise vs depuis

Shared letters: deisu. Private to "déguise": gé. Private to "depuis": p.

"déguise" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "depuis" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • depuis ← ddepuis · depius · deppuis · depuiss · depusi · deupis · dpeuis · edpuis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "déguise" for "depuis" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "déguise" is a verb and "depuis" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "déguise" vs "depuis" - which ranks higher?
"depuis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #112 in our French list, against #30,578 for "déguise". 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 "déguise" and "depuis" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "déguise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "depuis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #308,596 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "déguise" and "depuis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déduite vs déguise". 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 #308,596 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