DAT vs dem, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“DAT” is an abbrev and “dem” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,524
“DAT” frequency rank: #22
“dem” frequency rank: 6546
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	DAT	dem
Definition	Abkürzung für „digital audio tape“ (Digitales Audio Tonband)	[1] Dativ Singular des definiten Artikels der

Letter map: DAT vs dem

Shared letters muted; letters that set DAT and dem apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

DAT

3 ch

dem

Role in the sentence - DAT and dem

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: DAT is anabbrev and demadeterminer. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6546, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

DAT is recorded at frequency rank #6,524, classified as anabbrev, pronounced […]. 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 6546, this pair ranks #1,991,270 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of DAT vs dem

Shared letters: d. Private to "DAT": at. Private to "dem": em.

"DAT" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "dem" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "DAT" for "dem" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "DAT" is an abbrev and "dem" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "DAT" vs "dem" - which ranks higher?

"dem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22 in our German list, against #6,524 for "DAT". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "DAT" and "dem". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "DAT" 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 #1,991,270 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"DAT" and "dem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DAT vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,991,270 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.