deovsdesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: deo is a noun, des is a determiner, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“deo” is a noun and “des” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,556
“deo” frequency rank
#23
“des” frequency rank
17579
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deo des
Definition ein Gott, eine Gottheit (geschlechtsneutral, allerdings ist die weibliche Wortform selten, die männliche – *deulo – gar nicht belegt) [1] Genitiv Singular von der und das

Letter map: deo vs des

Shared letters muted; letters that set deo and des apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
deo
3 ch
des

Role in the sentence - deo and des

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: deo is anoun and desadeterminer. On the page they differ by a single letter - o in “deo” becomes s in “des”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17579, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

deo is recorded at frequency rank #17,556, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. des is at rank #23, tagged as adet, pronounced [dɛs].

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 17579, this pair ranks #1,926,119 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of deo vs des

Shared letters: de. Private to "deo": o. Private to "des": s.

"deo" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "des" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "deo" for "des" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "deo" is a noun and "des" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "deo" or "des" show up more?
"des" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23 in our German list, against #17,556 for "deo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "deo" and "des".

  • Full dictionary entry for "deo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "des" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,926,119 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deo" and "des" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deo vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,926,119 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