déléguévsdéléguerTell them apart

Quick tell: délégué is a noun, déléguer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“délégué” is a noun and “déléguer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,337
“délégué” frequency rank
#24,193
“déléguer” frequency rank
29530
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature délégué déléguer
Definition Personne qui a reçu une délégation, qui a commission de quelqu’un. Députer, commettre, envoyer quelqu’un avec pouvoir d’agir, d’examiner, de juger, de négocier, etc.

Same sound, different letters: délégué vs déléguer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. délégué runs 7 letters (CVCVCVV) against déléguer's 8 (CVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
délégué
8 ch
déléguer

Ear matches; page differs - délégué and déléguer

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: délégué and déléguer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \de.le.ɡe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29530, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

délégué is recorded at frequency rank #5,337, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.le.ɡe\. déléguer is at rank #24,193, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.le.ɡe\.

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 29530, this pair ranks #316,095 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of délégué vs déléguer

Shared letters: dglué. Private to "délégué": -. Private to "déléguer": er.

"délégué" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "déléguer" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "délégué" and "déléguer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "délégué" is a noun and "déléguer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "délégué" vs "déléguer" - which ranks higher?
"délégué" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,337 in our French list, against #24,193 for "déléguer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "délégué" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "déléguer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #316,095 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "délégué" and "déléguer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déléguer vs déloger". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #316,095 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