désignéevsdesignsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: désignée is a adjective, designs is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#12,957
“désignée” frequency rank
#41,219
“designs” frequency rank
54176
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature désignée designs
Definition Féminin singulier de désigné. Pluriel de design.

Where the spellings diverge

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

8 ch
désignée
7 ch
designs

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: désignée is \de.zi.ɲe\ while designs is \di.zajn\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54176, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

désignée is recorded at frequency rank #12,957, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.zi.ɲe\. designs is at rank #41,219, tagged as anoun, pronounced \di.zajn\.

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 54176, this pair ranks #135,734 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of désignée vs designs

Shared letters: degins. Private to "désignée": é. Private to "designs": -.

"désignée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV  ·  "designs" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • designsddesigns · deisgns · desgins · desiggns · designns · designss · desigsn · desings

Frequency comparison

désignée#12,957
designs#41,219

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "désignée" and "designs" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "désignée" is an adjective and "designs" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "désignée" or "designs"?
"désignée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,957 in our French list, against #41,219 for "designs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering désignée vs designs

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “désignée”; for a noun, it's “designs”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “désignée” 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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list