Which to use
“dessinée” is an adjective and “dessiner” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,374
- “dessinée” frequency rank
- #7,300
- “dessiner” frequency rank
- 15674
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dessinée | dessiner |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de dessiné. | Représenter, reproduire par le dessin. |
Same sound, different letters: dessinée vs dessiner
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. dessinée (CVCCVCVV) and dessiner (CVCCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Ear matches; page differs - dessinée and dessiner
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: dessinée and dessiner carry the same recorded pronunciation, \de.si.ne\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15674, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dessinée is recorded at frequency rank #8,374, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.si.ne\. dessiner is at rank #7,300, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.si.ne\.
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 15674, this pair ranks #391,324 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dessinée vs dessiner
Shared letters: deins. Private to "dessinée": é. Private to "dessiner": r.
"dessinée" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV · "dessiner" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dessiner ← ddessiner · desiner · desisner · dessienr · dessinerr · dessinner · dessinre · dessnier
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "dessinée" and "dessiner" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "dessinée" vs "dessiner" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
"dessinée" and "dessiner" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "dessinée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dessiner" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #391,324 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dessinée" and "dessiner" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dessina vs dessinée". 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 #391,324 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.