Which to use
“délais” is a noun and “devais” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,551
- “délais” frequency rank
- #3,910
- “devais” frequency rank
- 9461
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | délais | devais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de délai. | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de devoir. |
Where the eye mixes délais and devais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses délais with devais
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: délais is \de.lɛ\ while devais is \də.vɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 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 9461, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
délais is recorded at frequency rank #5,551, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.lɛ\. devais is at rank #3,910, tagged as averb, pronounced \də.vɛ\.
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 9461, this pair ranks #416,558 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of délais vs devais
Shared letters: adis. Private to "délais": lé. Private to "devais": ev.
"délais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "devais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- devais ← ddevais · deavis · devaiss · devasi · devias · devvais · dveais · edvais
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "délais" and "devais" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "délais" or "devais" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "délais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "devais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #416,558 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "délais" and "devais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devais vs Devaux". 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 #416,558 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.