Which to use
“dérives” and “driver” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,395
- “dérives” frequency rank
- #19,812
- “driver” frequency rank
- 31207
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dérives | driver |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de dérive. | Club de golf. |
Where the eye mixes dérives and driver
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. dérives runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against driver's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses dérives with driver
A purely visual mix-up. dérives (\de.ʁiv\) and driver (\dʁaj.vœʁ\) 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 31207, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dérives is recorded at frequency rank #11,395, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.ʁiv\. driver is at rank #19,812, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dʁaj.vœʁ\.
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 31207, this pair ranks #305,267 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dérives vs driver
Shared letters: deirv. Private to "dérives": sé. Private to "driver": -.
"dérives" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "driver" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- driver ← ddriver · dirver · drievr · driverr · drivre · drivver · drriver · drvier
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dérives" for "driver" ever safe?
Which is more common, "dérives" or "driver"?
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 "dérives" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "driver" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #305,267 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dérives" and "driver" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dive vs driver". 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 #305,267 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.