deglivsdeiTell them apart

Quick tell: degli is a preposition, dei is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“degli” is a preposition and “dei” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,845
“degli” frequency rank
#7,028
“dei” frequency rank
52873
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature degli dei
Definition Verschmelzung der Präposition di mit dem bestimmten Artikel gli Genitiv Singular des Substantivs deus

Letter map: degli vs dei

Shared letters muted; letters that set degli and dei apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. degli runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against dei's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
degli
3 ch
dei

Grammar separator: degli vs dei

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: degli is apreposition and deianoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52873, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

degli is recorded at frequency rank #45,845, classified as aprep, pronounced [ˈdeʎʎi]. dei is at rank #7,028, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 52873, this pair ranks #1,079,958 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of degli vs dei

Shared letters: dei. Private to "degli": gl. Private to "dei": -.

"degli" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "dei" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • degli ← ddegli · deggli · degil · deglli · delgi · dgeli · edgli

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "degli" and "dei" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "degli" is a preposition and "dei" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "degli" or "dei" show up more?
"dei" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,028 in our German list, against #45,845 for "degli". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "degli" and "dei". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "degli" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dei" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,079,958 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "degli" and "dei" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "degli vs demi". 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 #1,079,958 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list