demievsdeviezTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#6,492
“demie” frequency rank
#25,966
“deviez” frequency rank
32458
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature demie deviez
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). Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de devoir.

Where the eye mixes demie and deviez

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

5 ch
demie
6 ch
deviez

Look-alike desk: demie vs deviez

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: demie is \də.mi\ while deviez is \də.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 32458, 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\. deviez is at rank #25,966, tagged as averb, pronounced \də.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 32458, this pair ranks #297,147 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of demie vs deviez

Shared letters: dei. Private to "demie": m. Private to "deviez": vz.

"demie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "deviez" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • demieddemie · deime · demei · demmie · dmeie · edmie
  • deviezddeviez · deivez · deveiz · deviezz · devize · devviez · dveiez · edviez

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "demie" and "deviez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "demie" is a noun and "deviez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "demie" or "deviez"?
"demie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,492 in our French list, against #25,966 for "deviez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "demie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "deviez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #297,147 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "demie" and "deviez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deviez vs diez". 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 #297,147 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