Which to use
“devoir” is a verb and “devon” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #843
- “devoir” frequency rank
- #24,540
- “devon” frequency rank
- 25383
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | devoir | devon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Avoir à payer une somme d’argent, à rendre ou à donner quelque chose que ce soit. | Poisson artificiel servant d’appât. |
Where the eye mixes devoir and devon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: devoir vs devon
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: devoir is \də.vwaʁ\ while devon is \də.vɔ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25383, 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\. devon is at rank #24,540, tagged as anoun, pronounced \də.vɔ̃\.
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 25383, this pair ranks #341,195 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of devoir vs devon
Shared letters: deov. Private to "devoir": ir. Private to "devon": n.
"devoir" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "devon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "devoir" for "devon" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "devoir" or "devon" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "devoir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "devon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #341,195 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "devoir" and "devon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devins vs devon". 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 #341,195 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.