Which to use
“devoir” is a verb and “devoirs” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #843
- “devoir” frequency rank
- #3,836
- “devoirs” frequency rank
- 4679
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | devoir | devoirs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Avoir à payer une somme d’argent, à rendre ou à donner quelque chose que ce soit. | Pluriel de devoir. |
Same sound, different letters: devoir vs devoirs
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - devoir and devoirs
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: devoir and devoirs carry the same recorded pronunciation, \də.vwaʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “devoir” sits inside “devoirs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4679, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
devoir is recorded at frequency rank #843, classified as averb, pronounced \də.vwaʁ\. devoirs is at rank #3,836, tagged as anoun, 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 4679, this pair ranks #430,974 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of devoir vs devoirs
Shared letters: deiorv. Private to "devoir": -. Private to "devoirs": s.
"devoir" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "devoirs" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "devoir" and "devoirs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "devoir" or "devoirs" show up more?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "devoir" / "devoirs". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "devoir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "devoirs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #430,974 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "devoir" and "devoirs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devins vs devoirs". 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 #430,974 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.