Which to use
“diffère” is a verb and “difforme” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,352
- “diffère” frequency rank
- #49,022
- “difforme” frequency rank
- 61374
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | diffère | difforme |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de différer. | Qui est contrefait, qui n’a pas la figure, la forme ou les proportions qu’il devrait avoir. |
Where the eye mixes diffère and difforme
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: diffère vs difforme
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: diffère is \di.fɛʁ\ while difforme is \di.fɔʁm\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61374, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
diffère is recorded at frequency rank #12,352, classified as averb, pronounced \di.fɛʁ\. difforme is at rank #49,022, tagged as anadj, pronounced \di.fɔʁm\.
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 61374, this pair ranks #92,623 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of diffère vs difforme
Shared letters: defir. Private to "diffère": è. Private to "difforme": mo.
"diffère" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "difforme" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- difforme ← ddifforme · dfiforme · diffomre · difforem · difformme · difforrme · diffrome · difofrme
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "diffère" for "difforme" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "diffère" or "difforme" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "diffère" and "difforme" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "diffère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "difforme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #92,623 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "diffère" and "difforme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "différée vs difforme". 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 #92,623 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.