Which to use
“doive” and “doivent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,452
- “doive” frequency rank
- #566
- “doivent” frequency rank
- 15018
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | doive | doivent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de devoir. | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de devoir. |
Same sound, different letters: doive vs doivent
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. doive runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against doivent's 7 (CVVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: doive vs doivent
This is the hard kind. doive and doivent are pronounced identically (\dwav\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “doive” sits inside “doivent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15018, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
doive is recorded at frequency rank #14,452, classified as averb, pronounced \dwav\. doivent is at rank #566, tagged as averb, pronounced \dwav\.
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 15018, this pair ranks #394,207 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of doive vs doivent
Shared letters: deiov. Private to "doive": -. Private to "doivent": nt.
"doive" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "doivent" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "doive" and "doivent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "doive" or "doivent"?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "doive" / "doivent". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "doive" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "doivent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #394,207 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "doive" and "doivent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dice vs doive". 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 #394,207 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.