Which to use
“dear” is an adjective and “dess” is an unknown - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,506
- “dear” frequency rank
- #48,817
- “dess” frequency rank
- 79323
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dear | dess |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | lieb, teuer, süß, entzückend, reizend, herzig | 3. Person Utrum Singular Genitiv des Personalpronomens den |
Where the eye mixes dear and dess
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dear (CVVC) and dess (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses dear with dess
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dear is [diɹ] while dess is [ˈdɛ̝sː]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs unknown), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79323, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dear is recorded at frequency rank #30,506, classified as anadj, pronounced [diɹ]. 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 79323, this pair ranks #218,918 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dear vs dess
Shared letters: de. Private to "dear": ar. Private to "dess": s.
"dear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "dess" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dear" and "dess" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "dear" or "dess" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "dear" 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 #218,918 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dear" 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 #218,918 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.