Which to use
“dérobe” and “dérober” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,767
- “dérobe” frequency rank
- #23,527
- “dérober” frequency rank
- 63294
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dérobe | dérober |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de dérober. | Enlever ou voler en cachette. |
Where the eye mixes dérobe and dérober
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between dérobe and dérober
A purely visual mix-up. dérobe (\de.ʁɔb\) and dérober (\de.ʁɔ.be\) 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 extra letter(s) - “dérobe” sits inside “dérober”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63294, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dérobe is recorded at frequency rank #39,767, classified as averb, pronounced \de.ʁɔb\. dérober is at rank #23,527, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ʁɔ.be\.
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 63294, this pair ranks #82,706 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dérobe vs dérober
Shared letters: bdeoré. Private to "dérobe": -. Private to "dérober": -.
"dérobe" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "dérober" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dérobe" and "dérober" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "dérobe" or "dérober" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "dérobe" and "dérober" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dérobe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dérober" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #82,706 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dérobe" and "dérober" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "derme vs dérobe". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #82,706 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.