désirezvsdevrezWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“désirez” and “devrez” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#11,397
“désirez” frequency rank
#11,386
“devrez” frequency rank
22783
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature désirez devrez
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de désirer. Deuxième personne du pluriel du futur de devoir.

Where the eye mixes désirez and devrez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. désirez runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against devrez's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
désirez
6 ch
devrez

Look-alike desk: désirez vs devrez

A purely visual mix-up. désirez (\de.zi.ʁe\) and devrez (\də.vʁe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22783, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

désirez is recorded at frequency rank #11,397, classified as averb, pronounced \de.zi.ʁe\. devrez is at rank #11,386, tagged as averb, pronounced \də.vʁe\.

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 22783, this pair ranks #356,186 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of désirez vs devrez

Shared letters: derz. Private to "désirez": isé. Private to "devrez": v.

"désirez" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "devrez" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • devrez ← ddevrez · dervez · deverz · devrezz · devrrez · devrze · devvrez · dverez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "désirez" for "devrez" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.zi.ʁe\ versus \də.vʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "désirez" or "devrez" show up more?
"devrez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,386 in our French list, against #11,397 for "désirez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "désirez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devrez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #356,186 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "désirez" and "devrez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "désirez vs dessinez". 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 #356,186 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