dévoilervsdevoirWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,160
“dévoiler” frequency rank
#843
“devoir” frequency rank
10003
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dévoiler devoir
Definition Découvrir ce qui était couvert d’un voile. Avoir à payer une somme d’argent, à rendre ou à donner quelque chose que ce soit.

Where the eye mixes dévoiler and devoir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. dévoiler runs 8 letters (CVCVVCVC) against devoir's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
dévoiler
6 ch
devoir

Look-alike desk: dévoiler vs devoir

A purely visual mix-up. dévoiler (\de.vwa.le\) and devoir (\də.vwaʁ\) 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 10003, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dévoiler is recorded at frequency rank #9,160, classified as averb, pronounced \de.vwa.le\. devoir is at rank #843, tagged as averb, pronounced \də.vwaʁ\.

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 10003, this pair ranks #414,595 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dévoiler vs devoir

Shared letters: deiorv. Private to "dévoiler": . Private to "devoir": -.

"dévoiler" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC  ·  "devoir" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • devoirddevoir · deovir · devior · devoirr · devori · devvoir · dveoir · edvoir

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dévoiler" for "devoir" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.vwa.le\ versus \də.vwaʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dévoiler" vs "devoir" - which ranks higher?
"devoir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #843 in our French list, against #9,160 for "dévoiler". 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 "dévoiler" and "devoir" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dévoiler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devoir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #414,595 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dévoiler" and "devoir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dévoiler vs dévoilera". 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 #414,595 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