développavsdéveloppeTell them apart

Which to use

“développa” and “développe” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#31,469
“développa” frequency rank
#4,071
“développe” frequency rank
35540
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature développa développe
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de développer. Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de développer.

Where the eye mixes développa and développe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. développa and développe follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
développa
9 ch
développe

Look-alike desk: développa vs développe

A purely visual mix-up. développa (\de.vlɔ.pa\) and développe (\de.vlɔp\) 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 a single letter - a in “développa” becomes e in “développe”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35540, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

développa is recorded at frequency rank #31,469, classified as averb, pronounced \de.vlɔ.pa\. développe is at rank #4,071, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.vlɔp\.

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 35540, this pair ranks #275,998 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of développa vs développe

Shared letters: delopvé. Private to "développa": a. Private to "développe": -.

"développa" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCCV  ·  "développe" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "développa" for "développe" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.vlɔ.pa\ versus \de.vlɔp\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "développa" vs "développe" - which ranks higher?
"développe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,071 in our French list, against #31,469 for "développa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "développa" and "développe" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "développa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "développe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #275,998 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "développa" and "développe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "développa vs développait". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #275,998 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list