désiréesvsdésirezWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: désirées is a adjective, désirez is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“désirées” is an adjective and “désirez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,732
“désirées” frequency rank
#11,397
“désirez” frequency rank
58129
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature désirées désirez
Definition Féminin pluriel de désiré. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de désirer.

Same sound, different letters: désirées vs désirez

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. désirées runs 8 letters (CVCVCVVC) against désirez's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
désirées
7 ch
désirez

Homophone desk: désirées vs désirez

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: désirées and désirez carry the same recorded pronunciation, \de.zi.ʁe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58129, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

désirées is recorded at frequency rank #46,732, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.zi.ʁe\. désirez is at rank #11,397, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.zi.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 58129, this pair ranks #110,849 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of désirées vs désirez

Shared letters: deirsé. Private to "désirées": -. Private to "désirez": z.

"désirées" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "désirez" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "désirées" for "désirez" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "désirées" is an adjective and "désirez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "désirées" vs "désirez" - which ranks higher?
"désirez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,397 in our French list, against #46,732 for "désirées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "désirées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "désirez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #110,849 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "désirées" and "désirez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "désirées vs désireuses". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #110,849 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list