désespéré vs désespérées

Which to use

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

#12,558
“désespéré” frequency rank: #41,253
“désespérées” frequency rank: 53811
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	désespéré	désespérées
Definition	Qui est dans le désespoir, qui agit par désespoir.	Féminin pluriel de désespéré.

Same sound, different letters: désespéré vs désespérées

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. désespéré runs 9 letters (CVCVCCVCV) against désespérées's 11 (CVCVCCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch

désespéré

11 ch

désespérées

Ear matches; page differs - désespéré and désespérées

This is the hard kind. désespéré and désespérées are pronounced identically (\de.zɛs.pe.ʁe\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “désespéré” sits inside “désespérées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53811, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

désespéré is recorded at frequency rank #12,558, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.zɛs.pe.ʁe\. désespérées is at rank #41,253, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.zɛs.pe.ʁe\.

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 53811, this pair ranks #138,203 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of désespéré vs désespérées

Shared letters: deprsé. Private to "désespéré": -. Private to "désespérées": -.

"désespéré" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCV · "désespérées" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "désespéré" for "désespérées" ever safe?

No. They are pronounced the same (\de.zɛs.pe.ʁe\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.

Frequency check: "désespéré" vs "désespérées" - which ranks higher?

"désespéré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,558 in our French list, against #41,253 for "désespérées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "désespéré" / "désespérées". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

Full dictionary entry for "désespéré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "désespérées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #138,203 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"désespéré" and "désespérées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "désespérées vs désespérer". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #138,203 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.