devraisvsdevraitTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,273
“devrais” frequency rank
#413
“devrait” frequency rank
2686
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Same sound, different letters: devrais vs devrait

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

7 ch
devrais
7 ch
devrait

Same sound, different spelling - devrais / devrait

This is the hard kind. devrais and devrait are pronounced identically (\də.vʁɛ\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - s in “devrais” becomes t in “devrait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2686, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

devrais is recorded at frequency rank #2,273, classified as averb, pronounced \də.vʁɛ\. 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 2686, this pair ranks #435,660 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of devrais vs devrait

Shared letters: adeirv. Private to "devrais": s. Private to "devrait": t.

"devrais" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "devrait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • devraisddevrais · dervais · devaris · devraiss · devrasi · devrias · devrrais · devvrais
  • devraitddevrait · dervait · devarit · devraitt · devrati · devriat · devrrait · devvrait

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "devrais" and "devrait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\də.vʁɛ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "devrais" vs "devrait" - which ranks higher?
"devrait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #413 in our French list, against #2,273 for "devrais". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

"devrais" and "devrait" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "devrais" 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 #435,660 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "devrais" and "devrait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devenais vs devrais". 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 #435,660 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