Which to use
“dessin” is a noun and “dessus” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,117
- “dessin” frequency rank
- #365
- “dessus” frequency rank
- 2482
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dessin | dessus |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | À la partie, à la face supérieure. |
Where the eye mixes dessin and dessus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. dessin and dessus follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: dessin vs dessus
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dessin is \de.sɛ̃\ while dessus is \də.sy\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2482, 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\. dessus is at rank #365, tagged as anadv, pronounced \də.sy\.
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 2482, this pair ranks #436,055 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dessin vs dessus
Shared letters: des. Private to "dessin": in. Private to "dessus": u.
"dessin" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "dessus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dessin" and "dessus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "dessin" or "dessus"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "dessin" and "dessus" 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 "dessus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #436,055 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dessin" and "dessus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dessin 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 #436,055 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.