demievsdéviéeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#6,492
“demie” frequency rank
#45,005
“déviée” frequency rank
51497
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature demie déviée
Definition Demi-heure. Note d’usage : On dit de une heure et demie à onze heures et demie, mais rarement les autres (sinon midi, ou minuit, et demi, qui ne sont plus de la même forme). Participe passé féminin singulier de dévier.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set demie and déviée apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
demie
6 ch
déviée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: demie is \də.mi\ while déviée is \de.vje\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51497, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

demie is recorded at frequency rank #6,492, classified as anoun, pronounced \də.mi\. déviée is at rank #45,005, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.vje\.

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 51497, this pair ranks #154,549 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of demie vs déviée

Shared letters: dei. Private to "demie": m. Private to "déviée": .

"demie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "déviée" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • demieddemie · deime · demei · demmie · dmeie · edmie

Frequency comparison

demie#6,492
déviée#45,005

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "demie" and "déviée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "demie" is a noun and "déviée" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "demie" or "déviée"?
"demie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,492 in our French list, against #45,005 for "déviée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering demie vs déviée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “demie”; for a verb, it's “déviée”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “demie” 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