devraivsdiraiWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#14,008
“devrai” frequency rank
#4,747
“dirai” frequency rank
18755
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature devrai dirai
Definition Première personne du singulier du futur de devoir. Première personne du singulier du futur de dire.

Where the eye mixes devrai and dirai

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
devrai
5 ch
dirai

Look-alike desk: devrai vs dirai

A purely visual mix-up. devrai (\də.vʁe\) and dirai (\di.ʁe\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18755, 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\. dirai is at rank #4,747, tagged as averb, pronounced \di.ʁe\.

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 18755, this pair ranks #376,731 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of devrai vs dirai

Shared letters: adir. Private to "devrai": ev. Private to "dirai": -.

"devrai" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "dirai" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • devraiddevrai · dervai · devari · devria · devrrai · devvrai · dverai · edvrai
  • diraiddirai · diari · diria · dirrai · driai · idrai

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "devrai" for "dirai" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\də.vʁe\ versus \di.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "devrai" vs "dirai" - which ranks higher?
"dirai" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,747 in our French list, against #14,008 for "devrai". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "devrai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dirai" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #376,731 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "devrai" and "dirai" 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 #376,731 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