démentievsdémentirWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: démentie is a adjective, démentir is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“démentie” is an adjective and “démentir” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,997
“démentie” frequency rank
#27,415
“démentir” frequency rank
62412
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature démentie démentir
Definition Féminin singulier de démenti. Contredire quelqu’un en niant la véracité de ce qu’il a affirmé.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set démentie and démentir apart are highlighted. They share 7 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch
démentie
8 ch
démentir

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: démentie is \de.mɑ̃.ti\ while démentir is \de.mɑ̃.tiʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “démentie” becomes r in “démentir”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62412, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

démentie is recorded at frequency rank #34,997, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.mɑ̃.ti\. démentir is at rank #27,415, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.mɑ̃.tiʁ\.

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 62412, this pair ranks #87,267 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of démentie vs démentir

Shared letters: deimnté. Private to "démentie": -. Private to "démentir": r.

"démentie" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV  ·  "démentir" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Frequency comparison

démentie#34,997
démentir#27,415

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "démentie" and "démentir" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "démentie" is an adjective and "démentir" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "démentie" or "démentir"?
"démentir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,415 in our French list, against #34,997 for "démentie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering démentie vs démentir

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list