Which to use
“dériver” is a verb and “dernier” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,632
- “dériver” frequency rank
- #279
- “dernier” frequency rank
- 25911
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dériver | dernier |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Détourner un cours d’eau. | Dans un ensemble trié, l’élément qui arrive après tous les autres. |
Where the eye mixes dériver and dernier
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. dériver (CVCVCVC) and dernier (CVCCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses dériver with dernier
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dériver is \de.ʁi.ve\ while dernier is \dɛʁ.nje\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25911, 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\. dernier is at rank #279, tagged as anadj, pronounced \dɛʁ.nje\.
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 25911, this pair ranks #338,176 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dériver vs dernier
Shared letters: deir. Private to "dériver": vé. Private to "dernier": n.
"dériver" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "dernier" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dernier ← ddernier · denrier · deriner · derneir · dernierr · dernire · dernnier · derrnier
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dériver" and "dernier" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "dériver" or "dernier" show up more?
After this comparison
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 "dernier" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #338,176 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dériver" and "dernier" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "délier vs dériver". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #338,176 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.