Which to use
“devaient” and “devais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,249
- “devaient” frequency rank
- #3,910
- “devais” frequency rank
- 7159
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | devaient | devais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de devoir. | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de devoir. |
Same sound, different letters: devaient vs devais
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - devaient and devais
This is the hard kind. devaient and devais are pronounced identically (\də.vɛ\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7159, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
devaient is recorded at frequency rank #3,249, classified as averb, pronounced \də.vɛ\. devais is at rank #3,910, tagged as averb, pronounced \də.vɛ\.
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 7159, this pair ranks #424,027 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of devaient vs devais
Shared letters: adeiv. Private to "devaient": nt. Private to "devais": s.
"devaient" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVVCC · "devais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "devaient" for "devais" ever safe?
Frequency check: "devaient" vs "devais" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "devaient" / "devais". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "devaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "devais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #424,027 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "devaient" and "devais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devais vs Devaux". 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 #424,027 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.