devenuesvsdévoluesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: devenues is a verb, dévolues is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“devenues” is a verb and “dévolues” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,983
“devenues” frequency rank
#46,133
“dévolues” frequency rank
55116
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature devenues dévolues
Definition Participe passé féminin pluriel de devenir. Féminin pluriel de dévolu.

Where the eye mixes devenues and dévolues

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. devenues and dévolues follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
devenues
8 ch
dévolues

Look-alike desk: devenues vs dévolues

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: devenues is \də.və.ny\ while dévolues is \de.vɔ.ly\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55116, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

devenues is recorded at frequency rank #8,983, classified as averb, pronounced \də.və.ny\. dévolues is at rank #46,133, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.vɔ.ly\.

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 55116, this pair ranks #129,568 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of devenues vs dévolues

Shared letters: desuv. Private to "devenues": n. Private to "dévolues": loé.

"devenues" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "dévolues" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • devenues ← ddevenues · deevnues · deveneus · devennues · devenuess · devenuse · deveunes · devneues

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "devenues" for "dévolues" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "devenues" is a verb and "dévolues" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "devenues" vs "dévolues" - which ranks higher?
"devenues" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,983 in our French list, against #46,133 for "dévolues". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "devenues" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dévolues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #129,568 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "devenues" and "dévolues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dévolues vs dévolus". 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 #129,568 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