dériventvsdériverWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#39,274
“dérivent” frequency rank
#25,632
“dériver” frequency rank
64906
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dérivent dériver
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de dériver. Détourner un cours d’eau.

Where the eye mixes dérivent and dériver

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. dérivent runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCC) against dériver's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
dérivent
7 ch
dériver

Visual trap between dérivent and dériver

A purely visual mix-up. dérivent (\de.ʁiv\) and dériver (\de.ʁi.ve\) 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 64906, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dérivent is recorded at frequency rank #39,274, classified as averb, pronounced \de.ʁiv\. dériver is at rank #25,632, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ʁi.ve\.

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 64906, this pair ranks #74,770 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dérivent vs dériver

Shared letters: deirvé. Private to "dérivent": nt. Private to "dériver": -.

"dérivent" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC  ·  "dériver" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dérivent" and "dériver" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\de.ʁiv\ versus \de.ʁi.ve\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dérivent" vs "dériver" - which ranks higher?
"dériver" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,632 in our French list, against #39,274 for "dérivent". 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 "dérivent" and "dériver" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dérivent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dériver" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #74,770 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dérivent" and "dériver" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dérivant vs dérivent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #74,770 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