Which to use
“dérobée” is a noun and “déroule” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,298
- “dérobée” frequency rank
- #5,031
- “déroule” frequency rank
- 42329
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dérobée | déroule |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Danse traditionnelle bretonne. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de dérouler. |
Where the eye mixes dérobée and déroule
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. dérobée (CVCVCVV) and déroule (CVCVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: dérobée vs déroule
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dérobée is \de.ʁɔ.be\ while déroule is \de.ʁul\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42329, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dérobée is recorded at frequency rank #37,298, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.ʁɔ.be\. déroule is at rank #5,031, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ʁul\.
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 42329, this pair ranks #226,434 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dérobée vs déroule
Shared letters: deoré. Private to "dérobée": b. Private to "déroule": lu.
"dérobée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV · "déroule" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dérobée" and "déroule" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "dérobée" vs "déroule" - which ranks higher?
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 "dérobée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "déroule" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #226,434 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dérobée" and "déroule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dérobée vs déroge". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #226,434 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.