demandervsdemandesConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#602
“demander” frequency rank
#2,032
“demandes” frequency rank
2634
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature demander demandes
Definition Indiquer à quelqu’un par des paroles, par un écrit ou tout autre moyen ce qu’on désire obtenir de lui. Pluriel de demande.

Where the eye mixes demander and demandes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

8 ch
demander
8 ch
demandes

Why the eye confuses demander with demandes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: demander is \də.mɑ̃.de\ while demandes is \də.mɑ̃d\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “demander” becomes s in “demandes”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2634, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

demander is recorded at frequency rank #602, classified as averb, pronounced \də.mɑ̃.de\. demandes is at rank #2,032, tagged as anoun, pronounced \də.mɑ̃d\.

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 2634, this pair ranks #435,750 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of demander vs demandes

Shared letters: ademn. Private to "demander": r. Private to "demandes": s.

"demander" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "demandes" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • demanderddemander · deamnder · demadner · demandder · demanderr · demandre · demanedr · demannder
  • demandesddemandes · deamndes · demadnes · demanddes · demandess · demandse · demaneds · demanndes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "demander" and "demandes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "demander" is a verb and "demandes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "demander" or "demandes"?
"demander" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #602 in our French list, against #2,032 for "demandes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "demander" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "demandes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #435,750 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "demander" and "demandes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "demander vs demanderez". 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 #435,750 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