desservievsdesservirWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#29,723
“desservie” frequency rank
#21,592
“desservir” frequency rank
51315
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature desservie desservir
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de desservir. Débarrasser une table des plats, assiettes, etc.

Where the eye mixes desservie and desservir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. desservie (CVCCVCCVV) and desservir (CVCCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

9 ch
desservie
9 ch
desservir

Look-alike desk: desservie vs desservir

A purely visual mix-up. desservie (\de.sɛʁ.vi\) and desservir (\de.sɛʁ.viʁ\) 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 a single letter - e in “desservie” becomes r in “desservir”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51315, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

desservie is recorded at frequency rank #29,723, classified as averb, pronounced \de.sɛʁ.vi\. desservir is at rank #21,592, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.sɛʁ.viʁ\.

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 51315, this pair ranks #155,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of desservie vs desservir

Shared letters: deirsv. Private to "desservie": -. Private to "desservir": -.

"desservie" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVV  ·  "desservir" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • desservie ← ddesservie · deservie · desesrvie · desserive · desserrvie · desservei · desservvie · dessevrie
  • desservir ← ddesservir · deservir · desesrvir · desserivr · desserrvir · desservirr · desservri · desservvir

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "desservie" for "desservir" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.sɛʁ.vi\ versus \de.sɛʁ.viʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "desservie" or "desservir"?
"desservir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,592 in our French list, against #29,723 for "desservie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "desservie" and "desservir" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "desservie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "desservir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #155,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "desservie" and "desservir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "desserrer vs desservir". 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 #155,960 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