dérapervsdéroberWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#38,772
“déraper” frequency rank
#23,527
“dérober” frequency rank
62299
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature déraper dérober
Definition Quitter prise sur le fond en parlant d’une ancre, ce qui a pour effet de faire dériver le navire. Enlever ou voler en cachette.

Where the eye mixes déraper and dérober

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. déraper and dérober follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
déraper
7 ch
dérober

Look-alike desk: déraper vs dérober

A purely visual mix-up. déraper (\de.ʁa.pe\) and dérober (\de.ʁɔ.be\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62299, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

déraper is recorded at frequency rank #38,772, classified as averb, pronounced \de.ʁa.pe\. dérober is at rank #23,527, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ʁɔ.be\.

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 62299, this pair ranks #87,851 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of déraper vs dérober

Shared letters: deré. Private to "déraper": ap. Private to "dérober": bo.

"déraper" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "dérober" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "déraper" and "dérober" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\de.ʁa.pe\ versus \de.ʁɔ.be\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "déraper" or "dérober" show up more?
"dérober" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,527 in our French list, against #38,772 for "déraper". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "déraper" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dérober" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #87,851 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "déraper" and "dérober" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déraper vs draper". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #87,851 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