Which to use
“devoir” is a verb and “devons” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #843
- “devoir” frequency rank
- #2,314
- “devons” frequency rank
- 3157
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | devoir | devons |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Avoir à payer une somme d’argent, à rendre ou à donner quelque chose que ce soit. | Pluriel de devon. |
Where the eye mixes devoir and devons
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between devoir and devons
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: devoir is \də.vwaʁ\ while devons is \də.vɔ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3157, 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\. devons is at rank #2,314, 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 3157, this pair ranks #434,648 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of devoir vs devons
Shared letters: deov. Private to "devoir": ir. Private to "devons": ns.
"devoir" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "devons" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "devoir" for "devons" ever safe?
Frequency check: "devoir" vs "devons" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "devoir" and "devons" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "devoir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "devons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #434,648 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "devoir" and "devons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devins vs devons". 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 #434,648 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.