dément vs devant, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“dément” is an adjective and “devant” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,364
“dément” frequency rank: #265
“devant” frequency rank: 13629
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	dément	devant
Definition	Qui est dans l’état de démence.	À l’opposé de, vis-à-vis de, en face de.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set dément and devant apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

dément

6 ch

devant

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dément is \de.mɑ̃\ while devant is \də.vɑ̃\. 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 (adjective vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13629, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dément is recorded at frequency rank #13,364, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.mɑ̃\. devant is at rank #265, tagged as aprep, pronounced \də.vɑ̃\.

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 13629, this pair ranks #400,220 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dément vs devant

Shared letters: dent. Private to "dément": mé. Private to "devant": av.

"dément" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "devant" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

devant ← ddevant · deavnt · devannt · devantt · devatn · devnat · devvant · dveant

Frequency comparison

dément#13,364

devant#265

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dément" and "devant" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dément" is an adjective and "devant" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "dément" or "devant"?

"devant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #265 in our French list, against #13,364 for "dément". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering dément vs devant

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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