détruitvsdevraitWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,875
“détruit” frequency rank
#413
“devrait” frequency rank
3288
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature détruit devrait
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de détruire. Troisième personne du singulier du conditionnel de devoir.

Where the eye mixes détruit and devrait

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. détruit and devrait follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
détruit
7 ch
devrait

Visual trap between détruit and devrait

A purely visual mix-up. détruit (\de.tʁɥi\) and devrait (\də.vʁɛ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3288, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

détruit is recorded at frequency rank #2,875, classified as averb, pronounced \de.tʁɥi\. devrait is at rank #413, tagged as averb, pronounced \də.vʁɛ\.

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 3288, this pair ranks #434,396 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of détruit vs devrait

Shared letters: dirt. Private to "détruit": ué. Private to "devrait": aev.

"détruit" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "devrait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • devrait ← ddevrait · dervait · devarit · devraitt · devrati · devriat · devrrait · devvrait

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "détruit" for "devrait" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.tʁɥi\ versus \də.vʁɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "détruit" or "devrait"?
"devrait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #413 in our French list, against #2,875 for "détruit". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "détruit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devrait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #434,396 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "détruit" and "devrait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "détruise vs détruit". 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 #434,396 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