développervsdéveloppésConfusable pair

Quick tell: développer is a verb, développés is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“développer” is a verb and “développés” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,812
“développer” frequency rank
#6,611
“développés” frequency rank
8423
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature développer développés
Definition Dégager une chose de ce qui l’enveloppe. Pluriel de développé.

Where the eye mixes développer and développés

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

10 ch
développer
10 ch
développés

Why the eye confuses développer with développés

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: développer is \dɛv.lɔ.pe\ while développés is \de.vlɔ.pe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8423, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

développer is recorded at frequency rank #1,812, classified as averb, pronounced \dɛv.lɔ.pe\. développés is at rank #6,611, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.vlɔ.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 8423, this pair ranks #420,070 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of développer vs développés

Shared letters: delopvé. Private to "développer": r. Private to "développés": s.

"développer" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCCVC  ·  "développés" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "développer" for "développés" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "développer" is a verb and "développés" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "développer" vs "développés" - which ranks higher?
"développer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,812 in our French list, against #6,611 for "développés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "développer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "développés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #420,070 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "développer" and "développés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "développera vs développés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #420,070 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