Which to use
“devais” is a verb and “devoirs” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,910
- “devais” frequency rank
- #3,836
- “devoirs” frequency rank
- 7746
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | devais | devoirs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de devoir. | Pluriel de devoir. |
Where the eye mixes devais and devoirs
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: devais vs devoirs
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: devais is \də.vɛ\ while devoirs is \də.vwaʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7746, 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\. devoirs is at rank #3,836, tagged as anoun, pronounced \də.vwaʁ\.
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 7746, this pair ranks #422,245 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of devais vs devoirs
Shared letters: deisv. Private to "devais": a. Private to "devoirs": or.
"devais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "devoirs" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "devais" for "devoirs" ever safe?
Frequency check: "devais" vs "devoirs" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "devais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "devoirs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #422,245 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "devais" and "devoirs" 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 #422,245 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.