Which to use
“devant” is a preposition and “devants” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #265
- “devant” frequency rank
- #23,169
- “devants” frequency rank
- 23434
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | devant | devants |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | À l’opposé de, vis-à-vis de, en face de. | Pluriel de devant. |
Same sound, different letters: devant vs devants
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - devant / devants
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: devant and devants carry the same recorded pronunciation, \də.vɑ̃\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is apreposition, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “devant” sits inside “devants”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23434, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
devant is recorded at frequency rank #265, classified as aprep, pronounced \də.vɑ̃\. devants is at rank #23,169, tagged as anoun, pronounced \də.vɑ̃\.
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 23434, this pair ranks #352,500 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of devant vs devants
Shared letters: adentv. Private to "devant": -. Private to "devants": s.
"devant" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "devants" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "devant" and "devants" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "devant" vs "devants" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "devant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "devants" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #352,500 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "devant" and "devants" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devants vs déviants". 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 #352,500 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.