délivrentvsdériventWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#40,225
“délivrent” frequency rank
#39,274
“dérivent” frequency rank
79499
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature délivrent dérivent
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de délivrer. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de dériver.

Where the eye mixes délivrent and dérivent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. délivrent runs 9 letters (CVCVCCVCC) against dérivent's 8 (CVCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
délivrent
8 ch
dérivent

Look-alike desk: délivrent vs dérivent

A purely visual mix-up. délivrent (\de.livʁ\) and dérivent (\de.ʁiv\) 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 79499, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

délivrent is recorded at frequency rank #40,225, classified as averb, pronounced \de.livʁ\. dérivent is at rank #39,274, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ʁiv\.

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 79499, this pair ranks #23,140 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of délivrent vs dérivent

Shared letters: deinrtvé. Private to "délivrent": l. Private to "dérivent": -.

"délivrent" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCC  ·  "dérivent" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "délivrent" and "dérivent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\de.livʁ\ versus \de.ʁiv\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "délivrent" or "dérivent"?
"dérivent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,274 in our French list, against #40,225 for "délivrent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "délivrent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dérivent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,140 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "délivrent" and "dérivent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dérivant vs dérivent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #23,140 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