Which to use
“désignés” is an adjective and “designs” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,571
- “désignés” frequency rank
- #41,219
- “designs” frequency rank
- 52790
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | désignés | designs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de désigné. | Pluriel de design. |
Where the eye mixes désignés and designs
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. désignés runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVC) against designs's 7 (CVCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses désignés with designs
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: désignés 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 52790, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
désignés is recorded at frequency rank #11,571, 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 52790, this pair ranks #145,275 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of désignés vs designs
Shared letters: dgins. Private to "désignés": é. Private to "designs": e.
"désignés" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC · "designs" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- designs ← ddesigns · deisgns · desgins · desiggns · designns · designss · desigsn · desings
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "désignés" and "designs" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "désignés" or "designs" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "désignés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "designs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #145,275 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "désignés" and "designs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "désigna vs designs". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #145,275 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.