dérangeaitvsdérangeantWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: dérangeait is a verb, dérangeant is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dérangeait” is a verb and “dérangeant” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,138
“dérangeait” frequency rank
#23,848
“dérangeant” frequency rank
53986
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dérangeait dérangeant
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de déranger. Qui dérange.

Where the eye mixes dérangeait and dérangeant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. dérangeait (CVCVCCVVVC) and dérangeant (CVCVCCVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

10 ch
dérangeait
10 ch
dérangeant

Look-alike desk: dérangeait vs dérangeant

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dérangeait is \de.ʁɑ̃.ʒɛ\ while dérangeant is \de.ʁɑ̃.ʒɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “dérangeait” becomes n in “dérangeant”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53986, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dérangeait is recorded at frequency rank #30,138, classified as averb, pronounced \de.ʁɑ̃.ʒɛ\. dérangeant is at rank #23,848, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.ʁɑ̃.ʒɑ̃\.

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 53986, this pair ranks #137,069 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dérangeait vs dérangeant

Shared letters: adegnrté. Private to "dérangeait": i. Private to "dérangeant": -.

"dérangeait" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVVVC  ·  "dérangeant" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dérangeait" for "dérangeant" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dérangeait" is a verb and "dérangeant" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "dérangeait" or "dérangeant" show up more?
"dérangeant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,848 in our French list, against #30,138 for "dérangeait". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "dérangeait" and "dérangeant" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dérangeait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dérangeant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #137,069 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dérangeait" and "dérangeant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dérangeait vs dérangeante". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #137,069 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