devientvsdévierTell them apart

Which to use

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

#683
“devient” frequency rank
#22,248
“dévier” frequency rank
22931
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature devient dévier
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de devenir. Se détourner ; être détourné de sa direction.

Where the eye mixes devient and dévier

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

7 ch
devient
6 ch
dévier

Why the eye confuses devient with dévier

A purely visual mix-up. devient (\də.vjɛ̃\) and dévier (\de.vje\) 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 22931, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

devient is recorded at frequency rank #683, classified as averb, pronounced \də.vjɛ̃\. dévier is at rank #22,248, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.vje\.

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 22931, this pair ranks #355,294 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of devient vs dévier

Shared letters: deiv. Private to "devient": nt. Private to "dévier": .

"devient" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC  ·  "dévier" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • devientddevient · deivent · deveint · deviennt · devientt · devietn · devinet · devvient

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "devient" and "dévier" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\də.vjɛ̃\ versus \de.vje\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "devient" vs "dévier" - which ranks higher?
"devient" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #683 in our French list, against #22,248 for "dévier". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "devient" and "dévier" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "devient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dévier" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #355,294 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "devient" and "dévier" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dévier vs devins". 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 #355,294 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