devraivsdevraitWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#14,008
“devrai” frequency rank
#413
“devrait” frequency rank
14421
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature devrai devrait
Definition Première personne du singulier du futur de devoir. Troisième personne du singulier du conditionnel de devoir.

Where the eye mixes devrai and devrait

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
devrai
7 ch
devrait

Visual trap between devrai and devrait

A purely visual mix-up. devrai (\də.vʁe\) and devrait (\də.vʁɛ\) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “devrai” sits inside “devrait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14421, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

devrai is recorded at frequency rank #14,008, classified as averb, pronounced \də.vʁe\. devrait is at rank #413, tagged as averb, pronounced \də.vʁɛ\.

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 14421, this pair ranks #396,747 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of devrai vs devrait

Shared letters: adeirv. Private to "devrai": -. Private to "devrait": t.

"devrai" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "devrait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • devraiddevrai · dervai · devari · devria · devrrai · devvrai · dverai · edvrai
  • devraitddevrait · dervait · devarit · devraitt · devrati · devriat · devrrait · devvrait

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "devrai" and "devrait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\də.vʁe\ versus \də.vʁɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "devrai" vs "devrait" - which ranks higher?
"devrait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #413 in our French list, against #14,008 for "devrai". 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 "devrai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devrait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #396,747 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "devrai" and "devrait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Debra vs devrai". 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 #396,747 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