dellevsDieleConfusable pair

Quick tell: delle is a verb, Diele is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“delle” is a verb and “Diele” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,865
“delle” frequency rank
#40,473
“Diele” frequency rank
60338
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature delle Diele
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs dellen ein langes, schmales, 12 bis 35 Millimeter starkes hölzernes Brett, welches als Fußbodenbelag und als Verschalung dient

Where the eye mixes delle and Diele

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. delle (CVCCV) and Diele (CVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
delle
5 ch
Diele

Visual trap between delle and Diele

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: delle is [ˈdɛlə] while Diele is [ˈdiːlə]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60338, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

delle is recorded at frequency rank #19,865, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈdɛlə]. Diele is at rank #40,473, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈdiːlə].

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 60338, this pair ranks #790,737 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of delle vs Diele

Shared letters: del. Private to "delle": -. Private to "Diele": i.

"delle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Diele" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • delle ← ddelle · delel · dlele
  • Diele ← ddiele · deile · dieel · dielle · dilee · idele

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "delle" for "Diele" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "delle" is a verb and "Diele" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "delle" vs "Diele" - which ranks higher?
"delle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,865 in our German list, against #40,473 for "Diele". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "delle" and "Diele" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "delle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Diele" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #790,737 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "delle" and "Diele" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Diele vs diet". 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 #790,737 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