Which to use
“démolie” is a verb and “désolée” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #34,999
- “démolie” frequency rank
- #5,338
- “désolée” frequency rank
- 40337
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | démolie | désolée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé féminin singulier de démolir. | Féminin singulier de désolé. |
Where the eye mixes démolie and désolée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. démolie and désolée follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses démolie with désolée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: démolie is \de.mɔ.li\ while désolée is \de.zɔ.le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40337, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
démolie is recorded at frequency rank #34,999, classified as averb, pronounced \de.mɔ.li\. désolée is at rank #5,338, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.zɔ.le\.
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 40337, this pair ranks #241,289 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of démolie vs désolée
Shared letters: deloé. Private to "démolie": im. Private to "désolée": s.
"démolie" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV · "désolée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "démolie" for "désolée" ever safe?
Which is more common, "démolie" or "désolée"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "démolie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "désolée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #241,289 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "démolie" and "désolée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "démolie vs démolit". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #241,289 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.