Which to use
“de” is an abbrev and “dess” is an unknown - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #247
- “de” frequency rank
- #48,817
- “dess” frequency rank
- 49064
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | de | dess |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | nach ISO 639-1 für Deutsch | 3. Person Utrum Singular Genitiv des Personalpronomens den |
Letter map: de vs dess
Shared letters muted; letters that set de and dess apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for de / dess
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: de is anabbrev and dessanunknown. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “de” sits inside “dess”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49064, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
de is recorded at frequency rank #247, classified as anabbrev. dess is at rank #48,817, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [ˈdɛ̝sː].
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 49064, this pair ranks #1,225,379 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of de vs dess
Shared letters: de. Private to "de": -. Private to "dess": s.
"de" · 2 letters · shape CV · "dess" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dess ← ddess · deß · dses · edss
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "de" and "dess" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "de" or "dess"?
After this comparison
You've compared "de" and "dess". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "de" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dess" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,225,379 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "de" and "dess" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dess vs dew". 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 #1,225,379 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.