Which to use
“dérivent” and “désirent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,274
- “dérivent” frequency rank
- #13,775
- “désirent” frequency rank
- 53049
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dérivent | désirent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de dériver. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de désirer. |
Where the eye mixes dérivent and désirent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. dérivent and désirent follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: dérivent vs désirent
A purely visual mix-up. dérivent (\de.ʁiv\) and désirent (\de.ziʁ\) 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 53049, 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\. désirent is at rank #13,775, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ziʁ\.
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 53049, this pair ranks #143,453 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dérivent vs désirent
Shared letters: deinrté. Private to "dérivent": v. Private to "désirent": s.
"dérivent" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC · "désirent" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dérivent" and "désirent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "dérivent" or "désirent" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "dérivent" and "désirent" 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 "désirent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #143,453 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dérivent" and "désirent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dérivant vs dérivent". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #143,453 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.