démolirvsdémolisWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“démolir” and “démolis” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15,861
“démolir” frequency rank
#35,912
“démolis” frequency rank
51773
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature démolir démolis
Definition Abattre un bâtiment, une construction. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de démolir.

Where the eye mixes démolir and démolis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. démolir and démolis follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
démolir
7 ch
démolis

Visual trap between démolir and démolis

A purely visual mix-up. démolir (\de.mɔ.liʁ\) and démolis (\de.mɔ.li\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - r in “démolir” becomes s in “démolis”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51773, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

démolir is recorded at frequency rank #15,861, classified as averb, pronounced \de.mɔ.liʁ\. démolis is at rank #35,912, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.mɔ.li\.

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 51773, this pair ranks #152,585 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of démolir vs démolis

Shared letters: dilmoé. Private to "démolir": r. Private to "démolis": s.

"démolir" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "démolis" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "démolir" and "démolis" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\de.mɔ.liʁ\ versus \de.mɔ.li\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "démolir" vs "démolis" - which ranks higher?
"démolir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,861 in our French list, against #35,912 for "démolis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "démolir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "démolis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #152,585 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "démolir" and "démolis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "démolis vs démolit". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #152,585 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