demande vs démange, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#249
“demande” frequency rank: #40,226
“démange” frequency rank: 40475
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	demande	démange
Definition	Action de demander : requête.	Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de démanger.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set demande and démange apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch

demande

7 ch

démange

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: demande is \də.mɑ̃d\ while démange is \de.mɑ̃ʒ\. 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 40475, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

demande is recorded at frequency rank #249, classified as anoun, pronounced \də.mɑ̃d\. démange is at rank #40,226, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.mɑ̃ʒ\.

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 40475, this pair ranks #240,206 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of demande vs démange

Shared letters: ademn. Private to "demande": -. Private to "démange": gé.

"demande" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "démange" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

demande ← ddemande · deamnde · demadne · demandde · demaned · demannde · demmande · demnade

Frequency comparison

demande#249

démange#40,226

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "demande" and "démange" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "demande" is a noun and "démange" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "demande" or "démange"?

"demande" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #249 in our French list, against #40,226 for "démange". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering demande vs démange

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “demande”; for a verb, it's “démange”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “demande” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable