Which to use
“devais” and “devait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,910
- “devais” frequency rank
- #871
- “devait” frequency rank
- 4781
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | devais | devait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de devoir. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de devoir. |
Same sound, different letters: devais vs devait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - devais / devait
This is the hard kind. devais and devait 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 a single letter - s in “devais” becomes t in “devait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4781, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
devais is recorded at frequency rank #3,910, classified as averb, pronounced \də.vɛ\. devait is at rank #871, 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 4781, this pair ranks #430,717 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of devais vs devait
Shared letters: adeiv. Private to "devais": s. Private to "devait": t.
"devais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "devait" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "devais" and "devait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "devais" or "devait" show up more?
Useful next steps
"devais" and "devait" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "devais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "devait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #430,717 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "devais" and "devait" 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 #430,717 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.