devientvsdevionsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#683
“devient” frequency rank
#17,110
“devions” frequency rank
17793
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature devient devions
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de devenir. Première personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de devoir.

Where the eye mixes devient and devions

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
devient
7 ch
devions

Visual trap between devient and devions

A purely visual mix-up. devient (\də.vjɛ̃\) and devions (\də.vjɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17793, 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\. devions is at rank #17,110, tagged as averb, pronounced \də.vjɔ̃\.

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 17793, this pair ranks #381,474 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of devient vs devions

Shared letters: deinv. Private to "devient": t. Private to "devions": os.

"devient" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC  ·  "devions" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • devientddevient · deivent · deveint · deviennt · devientt · devietn · devinet · devvient
  • devionsddevions · deivons · devinos · devionns · devionss · deviosn · devoins · devvions

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "devient" and "devions" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\də.vjɛ̃\ versus \də.vjɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "devient" or "devions" show up more?
"devient" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #683 in our French list, against #17,110 for "devions". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "devient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devions" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #381,474 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "devient" and "devions" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déviants vs devions". 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 #381,474 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