dormevsdormiWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#30,132
“dorme” frequency rank
#6,289
“dormi” frequency rank
36421
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dorme dormi
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de dormir. Participe passé masculin singulier de dormir.

Where the eye mixes dorme and dormi

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

5 ch
dorme
5 ch
dormi

Why the eye confuses dorme with dormi

A purely visual mix-up. dorme (\dɔʁm\) and dormi (\dɔʁ.mi\) 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 a single letter - e in “dorme” becomes i in “dormi”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36421, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dorme is recorded at frequency rank #30,132, classified as averb, pronounced \dɔʁm\. dormi is at rank #6,289, tagged as averb, pronounced \dɔʁ.mi\.

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 36421, this pair ranks #269,737 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dorme vs dormi

Shared letters: dmor. Private to "dorme": e. Private to "dormi": i.

"dorme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "dormi" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dormeddorme · domre · dorem · dormme · dorrme · drome · odrme
  • dormiddormi · domri · dorim · dormmi · dorrmi · dromi · odrmi

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dorme" and "dormi" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\dɔʁm\ versus \dɔʁ.mi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dorme" or "dormi"?
"dormi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,289 in our French list, against #30,132 for "dorme". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dorme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dormi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #269,737 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dorme" and "dormi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "domi vs dorme". 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 #269,737 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