Which to use
“del” is an abbrev and “dess” is an unknown - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,719
- “del” frequency rank
- #48,817
- “dess” frequency rank
- 52536
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | del | dess |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bezeichnung für ∂, ein Symbol für die partielle Ableitung – es ist nicht mit dem kleinen Delta δ zu verwechseln | 3. Person Utrum Singular Genitiv des Personalpronomens den |
Letter map: del vs dess
Shared letters muted; letters that set del and dess apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. del runs 3 letters (CVC) against dess's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Grammar separator: del vs dess
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: del is anabbrev and dessanunknown. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52536, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
del is recorded at frequency rank #3,719, 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 52536, this pair ranks #1,092,931 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of del vs dess
Shared letters: de. Private to "del": l. Private to "dess": s.
"del" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "dess" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dess ← ddess · deß · dses · edss
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "del" for "dess" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "del" or "dess" show up more?
What to do next
You've compared "del" and "dess". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "del" 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 #1,092,931 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "del" 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 #1,092,931 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.