développavsdévelopperWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#31,469
“développa” frequency rank
#1,812
“développer” frequency rank
33281
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature développa développer
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de développer. Dégager une chose de ce qui l’enveloppe.

Where the eye mixes développa and développer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

9 ch
développa
10 ch
développer

Visual trap between développa and développer

A purely visual mix-up. développa (\de.vlɔ.pa\) and développer (\dɛv.lɔ.pe\) 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 33281, 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\. développer is at rank #1,812, tagged as averb, pronounced \dɛv.lɔ.pe\.

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 33281, this pair ranks #291,693 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of développa vs développer

Shared letters: delopvé. Private to "développa": a. Private to "développer": r.

"développa" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCCV  ·  "développer" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "développa" and "développer" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\de.vlɔ.pa\ versus \dɛv.lɔ.pe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "développa" vs "développer" - which ranks higher?
"développer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,812 in our French list, against #31,469 for "développa". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "développa" and "développer" 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 "développer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #291,693 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "développa" and "développer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "développa vs développait". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #291,693 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