Which to use
“devaient” and “dévoilent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,249
- “devaient” frequency rank
- #24,204
- “dévoilent” frequency rank
- 27453
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | devaient | dévoilent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de devoir. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de dévoiler. |
Where the eye mixes devaient and dévoilent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses devaient with dévoilent
A purely visual mix-up. devaient (\də.vɛ\) and dévoilent (\de.vwal\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27453, 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\. dévoilent is at rank #24,204, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.vwal\.
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 27453, this pair ranks #328,844 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of devaient vs dévoilent
Shared letters: deintv. Private to "devaient": a. Private to "dévoilent": loé.
"devaient" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVVCC · "dévoilent" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- devaient ← ddevaient · deavient · devaeint · devaiennt · devaientt · devaietn · devainet · deviaent
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "devaient" and "dévoilent" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "devaient" or "dévoilent" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "devaient" and "dévoilent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "devaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dévoilent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #328,844 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "devaient" and "dévoilent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décollent vs dévoilent". 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 #328,844 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.