Which to use
“départs” and “devants” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,158
- “départs” frequency rank
- #23,169
- “devants” frequency rank
- 32327
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | départs | devants |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de départ. | Pluriel de devant. |
Where the eye mixes départs and devants
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: départs vs devants
A purely visual mix-up. départs (\de.paʁ\) and devants (\də.vɑ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32327, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
départs is recorded at frequency rank #9,158, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.paʁ\. devants is at rank #23,169, tagged as anoun, pronounced \də.vɑ̃\.
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 32327, this pair ranks #298,000 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of départs vs devants
Shared letters: adst. Private to "départs": pré. Private to "devants": env.
"départs" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC · "devants" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- devants ← ddevants · deavnts · devannts · devanst · devantss · devantts · devatns · devnats
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "départs" and "devants" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "départs" or "devants" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "départs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "devants" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #298,000 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "départs" and "devants" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devants vs déviants". 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 #298,000 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.