DesignvsdésignésWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Design is a noun, désignés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Design” is a noun and “désignés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,604
“Design” frequency rank
#11,571
“désignés” frequency rank
15175
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Design désignés
Definition Design. Masculin pluriel de désigné.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set Design and désignés apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
Design
8 ch
désignés

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Design is \di:ˈzaɪ̯n\ while désignés is \de.zi.ɲe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15175, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Design is recorded at frequency rank #3,604, classified as anoun, pronounced \di:ˈzaɪ̯n\. désignés is at rank #11,571, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.zi.ɲe\.

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 15175, this pair ranks #393,522 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Design vs désignés

Shared letters: dgins. Private to "Design": e. Private to "désignés": é.

"Design" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "désignés" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Designddesign · deisgn · desgin · desiggn · designn · desing · dessign · dseign

Frequency comparison

Design#3,604
désignés#11,571

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Design" and "désignés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Design" is a noun and "désignés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Design" or "désignés"?
"Design" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,604 in our French list, against #11,571 for "désignés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering Design vs désignés

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “Design”; for an adjective, it's “désignés”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “Design” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list