Which to use
“désires” is a verb and “désolés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,301
- “désires” frequency rank
- #28,146
- “désolés” frequency rank
- 65447
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | désires | désolés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de désirer. | Masculin pluriel de l’adjectif désolé. |
Where the eye mixes désires and désolés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. désires and désolés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between désires and désolés
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: désires is \de.ziʁ\ while désolés is \de.zɔ.le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65447, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
désires is recorded at frequency rank #37,301, classified as averb, pronounced \de.ziʁ\. désolés is at rank #28,146, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.zɔ.le\.
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 65447, this pair ranks #72,300 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of désires vs désolés
Shared letters: dsé. Private to "désires": eir. Private to "désolés": lo.
"désires" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "désolés" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "désires" and "désolés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "désires" or "désolés" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "désires" and "désolés" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "désires" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "désolés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #72,300 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "désires" and "désolés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "désirées vs désires". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #72,300 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.