délaissevsdépasseWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“délaisse” and “dépasse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#30,995
“délaisse” frequency rank
#3,401
“dépasse” frequency rank
34396
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature délaisse dépasse
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de délaisser. Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de dépasser.

Where the eye mixes délaisse and dépasse

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
délaisse
7 ch
dépasse

Why the eye confuses délaisse with dépasse

A purely visual mix-up. délaisse (\de.lɛs\) and dépasse (\de.pas\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34396, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

délaisse is recorded at frequency rank #30,995, classified as averb, pronounced \de.lɛs\. dépasse is at rank #3,401, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.pas\.

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 34396, this pair ranks #284,120 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of délaisse vs dépasse

Shared letters: adesé. Private to "délaisse": il. Private to "dépasse": p.

"délaisse" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCCV  ·  "dépasse" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "délaisse" for "dépasse" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.lɛs\ versus \de.pas\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "délaisse" or "dépasse"?
"dépasse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,401 in our French list, against #30,995 for "délaisse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "délaisse" and "dépasse" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "délaisse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dépasse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #284,120 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "délaisse" and "dépasse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "délaisse vs délaissées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #284,120 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