devenaientvsdevraientWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#23,832
“devenaient” frequency rank
#1,910
“devraient” frequency rank
25742
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature devenaient devraient
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de devenir. Troisième personne du pluriel du conditionnel de devoir.

Where the eye mixes devenaient and devraient

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

10 ch
devenaient
9 ch
devraient

Look-alike desk: devenaient vs devraient

A purely visual mix-up. devenaient (\də.və.nɛ\) and devraient (\də.vʁɛ\) 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 25742, 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\. devraient is at rank #1,910, tagged as averb, pronounced \də.vʁɛ\.

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 25742, this pair ranks #339,109 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of devenaient vs devraient

Shared letters: adeintv. Private to "devenaient": -. Private to "devraient": r.

"devenaient" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVVCC  ·  "devraient" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • devenaientddevenaient · deevnaient · deveanient · devenaeint · devenaiennt · devenaientt · devenaietn · devenainet
  • devraientddevraient · dervaient · devarient · devraeint · devraiennt · devraientt · devraietn · devrainet

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "devenaient" for "devraient" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\də.və.nɛ\ versus \də.vʁɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "devenaient" or "devraient"?
"devraient" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,910 in our French list, against #23,832 for "devenaient". 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 "devenaient" and "devraient" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "devenaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devraient" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #339,109 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "devenaient" and "devraient" 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 #339,109 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