dérangeaitvsdérangentTell them apart

Which to use

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

#30,138
“dérangeait” frequency rank
#26,706
“dérangent” frequency rank
56844
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dérangeait dérangent
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de déranger. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de déranger.

Where the eye mixes dérangeait and dérangent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. dérangeait runs 10 letters (CVCVCCVVVC) against dérangent's 9 (CVCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
dérangeait
9 ch
dérangent

Why the eye confuses dérangeait with dérangent

A purely visual mix-up. dérangeait (\de.ʁɑ̃.ʒɛ\) and dérangent (\de.ʁɑ̃ʒ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56844, 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\. dérangent is at rank #26,706, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ʁɑ̃ʒ\.

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 56844, this pair ranks #118,563 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dérangeait vs dérangent

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

"dérangeait" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVVVC  ·  "dérangent" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dérangeait" for "dérangent" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.ʁɑ̃.ʒɛ\ versus \de.ʁɑ̃ʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "dérangeait" or "dérangent" show up more?
"dérangent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,706 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.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dérangeait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dérangent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #118,563 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dérangeait" and "dérangent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dérangeait vs dérangeante". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #118,563 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