déjàvsdengWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: déjà is a adverb, deng is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“déjà” is an adverb and “deng” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#122
“déjà” frequency rank
#42,277
“deng” frequency rank
42399
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature déjà deng
Definition Indique un changement d’état ou une atteinte du critère jusqu’à présent ou jusqu’alors. Ta, la tienne.

Where the eye mixes déjà and deng

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

4 ch
déjà
4 ch
deng

Why the eye confuses déjà with deng

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: déjà is \de.ʒa\ while deng is \dˈeŋ\. 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 (adverb vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42399, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

déjà is recorded at frequency rank #122, classified as anadv, pronounced \de.ʒa\. deng is at rank #42,277, tagged as apron, pronounced \dˈeŋ\.

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 42399, this pair ranks #225,918 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of déjà vs deng

Shared letters: d. Private to "déjà": jàé. Private to "deng": egn.

"déjà" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "deng" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dengddeng · degn · dengg · denng · dneg · edng

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "déjà" and "deng" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "déjà" is an adverb and "deng" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "déjà" vs "deng" - which ranks higher?
"déjà" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #122 in our French list, against #42,277 for "deng". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "déjà" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "deng" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #225,918 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "déjà" and "deng" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deng 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 #225,918 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