dérober vs déroge, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“dérober” and “déroge” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#23,527
“dérober” frequency rank: #43,401
“déroge” frequency rank: 66928
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	dérober	déroge
Definition	Enlever ou voler en cachette.	Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de déroger.

Where the eye mixes dérober and déroge

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch

dérober

6 ch

déroge

Look-alike desk: dérober vs déroge

A purely visual mix-up. dérober (\de.ʁɔ.be\) and déroge (\de.ʁɔʒ\) 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 66928, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dérober is recorded at frequency rank #23,527, classified as averb, pronounced \de.ʁɔ.be\. déroge is at rank #43,401, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ʁɔʒ\.

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 66928, this pair ranks #65,676 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dérober vs déroge

Shared letters: deoré. Private to "dérober": b. Private to "déroge": g.

"dérober" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "déroge" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dérober" and "déroge" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (\de.ʁɔ.be\ versus \de.ʁɔʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

In ordinary French text, does "dérober" or "déroge" show up more?

"dérober" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,527 in our French list, against #43,401 for "déroge". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "dérober" and "déroge" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "dérober" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "déroge" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #65,676 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"dérober" and "déroge" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "derme vs déroge". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #65,676 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.