Which to use
“dériver” is a verb and “dérives” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,632
- “dériver” frequency rank
- #11,395
- “dérives” frequency rank
- 37027
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dériver | dérives |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Détourner un cours d’eau. | Pluriel de dérive. |
Where the eye mixes dériver and dérives
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. dériver and dérives follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between dériver and dérives
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dériver is \de.ʁi.ve\ while dérives is \de.ʁiv\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “dériver” becomes s in “dérives”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37027, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dériver is recorded at frequency rank #25,632, classified as averb, pronounced \de.ʁi.ve\. dérives is at rank #11,395, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.ʁiv\.
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 37027, this pair ranks #265,396 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dériver vs dérives
Shared letters: deirvé. Private to "dériver": -. Private to "dérives": s.
"dériver" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "dérives" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "dériver" and "dérives" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "dériver" vs "dérives" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "dériver" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dérives" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #265,396 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dériver" and "dérives" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "délier vs dériver". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #265,396 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.