Which to use
“dessin” is a noun and “dessina” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,117
- “dessin” frequency rank
- #49,595
- “dessina” frequency rank
- 51712
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dessin | dessina |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Représentation d’objets, de personnages, de paysages, etc. sur une surface à l’aide d’un crayon, à la plume, au pinceau ou par tout autre instrument. | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de dessiner. |
Where the eye mixes dessin and dessina
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: dessin vs dessina
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dessin is \de.sɛ̃\ while dessina is \de.si.na\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “dessin” sits inside “dessina”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51712, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dessin is recorded at frequency rank #2,117, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.sɛ̃\. dessina is at rank #49,595, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.si.na\.
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 51712, this pair ranks #152,996 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dessin vs dessina
Shared letters: deins. Private to "dessin": -. Private to "dessina": a.
"dessin" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "dessina" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dessin" and "dessina" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "dessin" or "dessina"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "dessin" and "dessina" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dessin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dessina" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #152,996 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dessin" and "dessina" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "désigna vs dessina". 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 #152,996 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.