demandevsdérangeConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#249
“demande” frequency rank
#3,674
“dérange” frequency rank
3923
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes demande and dérange

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

7 ch
demande
7 ch
dérange

Look-alike desk: demande vs dérange

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: demande is \də.mɑ̃d\ while dérange is \de.ʁɑ̃ʒ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 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 3923, 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\. dérange is at rank #3,674, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ʁɑ̃ʒ\.

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 3923, this pair ranks #432,881 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of demande vs dérange

Shared letters: aden. Private to "demande": m. Private to "dérange": gré.

"demande" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "dérange" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • demandeddemande · deamnde · demadne · demandde · demaned · demannde · demmande · demnade

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "demande" for "dérange" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "demande" is a noun and "dérange" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "demande" vs "dérange" - which ranks higher?
"demande" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #249 in our French list, against #3,674 for "dérange". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "demande" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dérange" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #432,881 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "demande" and "dérange" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dérange vs déroge". 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 #432,881 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