deirvsdevraWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: deir is a adjective, devra is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“deir” is an adjective and “devra” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,242
“deir” frequency rank
#2,513
“devra” frequency rank
40755
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deir devra
Definition Forme mutée de teir par adoucissement (t → d). Troisième personne du singulier du futur de devoir.

Where the eye mixes deir and devra

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
deir
5 ch
devra

Why the eye confuses deir with devra

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: deir is \dɛjr\ while devra is \də.vʁa\. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40755, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

deir is recorded at frequency rank #38,242, classified as anadj, pronounced \dɛjr\. devra is at rank #2,513, tagged as averb, pronounced \də.vʁa\.

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 40755, this pair ranks #238,137 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of deir vs devra

Shared letters: der. Private to "deir": i. Private to "devra": av.

"deir" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "devra" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deirddeir · deirr · deri · edir
  • devraddevra · derva · devar · devrra · devvra · dvera · edvra

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "deir" for "devra" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "deir" is an adjective and "devra" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "deir" or "devra"?
"devra" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,513 in our French list, against #38,242 for "deir". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "deir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #238,137 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deir" and "devra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deir vs denim". 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 #238,137 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