Which to use
“dam” is an abbrev and “dem” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,288
- “dam” frequency rank
- #22
- “dem” frequency rank
- 24310
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dam | dem |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dekameter | [1] Dativ Singular des definiten Artikels der |
Letter map: dam vs dem
Shared letters muted; letters that set dam and dem apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for dam / dem
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dam is anabbrev and demadeterminer. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “dam” becomes e in “dem”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24310, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dam is recorded at frequency rank #24,288, classified as anabbrev. dem is at rank #22, tagged as adet, pronounced [deːm].
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 24310, this pair ranks #1,849,434 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dam vs dem
Shared letters: dm. Private to "dam": a. Private to "dem": e.
"dam" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "dem" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dam" for "dem" ever safe?
Which is more common, "dam" or "dem"?
After this comparison
Pair "dam" vs "dem" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "dam" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,849,434 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dam" and "dem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dam vs duc". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #1,849,434 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.