Which to use
“devait” and “dévie” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #871
- “devait” frequency rank
- #35,008
- “dévie” frequency rank
- 35879
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | devait | dévie |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de devoir. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de dévier. |
Where the eye mixes devait and dévie
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: devait vs dévie
A purely visual mix-up. devait (\də.vɛ\) and dévie (\de.vi\) 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 35879, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
devait is recorded at frequency rank #871, classified as averb, pronounced \də.vɛ\. dévie is at rank #35,008, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.vi\.
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 35879, this pair ranks #273,561 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of devait vs dévie
Shared letters: deiv. Private to "devait": at. Private to "dévie": é.
"devait" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "dévie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- devait ← ddevait · deavit · devaitt · devati · deviat · devvait · dveait · edvait
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "devait" and "dévie" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "devait" or "dévie"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "devait" and "dévie" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "devait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dévie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #273,561 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "devait" and "dévie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dèche vs dévie". 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 #273,561 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.