devenaientvsdevenantConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#23,832
“devenaient” frequency rank
#8,691
“devenant” frequency rank
32523
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature devenaient devenant
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de devenir. Participe présent de devenir.

Where the eye mixes devenaient and devenant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. devenaient runs 10 letters (CVCVCVVVCC) against devenant's 8 (CVCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
devenaient
8 ch
devenant

Visual trap between devenaient and devenant

A purely visual mix-up. devenaient (\də.və.nɛ\) and devenant (\də.və.nɑ̃\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32523, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

devenaient is recorded at frequency rank #23,832, classified as averb, pronounced \də.və.nɛ\. devenant is at rank #8,691, tagged as averb, pronounced \də.və.nɑ̃\.

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 32523, this pair ranks #296,706 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of devenaient vs devenant

Shared letters: adentv. Private to "devenaient": i. Private to "devenant": -.

"devenaient" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVVCC  ·  "devenant" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • devenaient ← ddevenaient · deevnaient · deveanient · devenaeint · devenaiennt · devenaientt · devenaietn · devenainet
  • devenant ← ddevenant · deevnant · deveannt · devenannt · devenantt · devenatn · devennant · devennat

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "devenaient" and "devenant" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\də.və.nɛ\ versus \də.və.nɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "devenaient" or "devenant"?
"devenant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,691 in our French list, against #23,832 for "devenaient". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "devenaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devenant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #296,706 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "devenaient" and "devenant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "détenaient vs devenaient". 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 #296,706 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