Which to use
“Dessau” is a name and “dessen” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,836
- “Dessau” frequency rank
- #392
- “dessen” frequency rank
- 11228
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Dessau | dessen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Stadtteil von Dessau-Roßlau, Sachsen-Anhalt, Deutschland | maskuliner und neutraler Genitiv des Relativpronomens der, auch als deiktische Entsprechung zum Possessivartikel sein |
Letter map: Dessau vs dessen
Shared letters muted; letters that set Dessau and dessen apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.
Role in the sentence - Dessau and dessen
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Dessau is aname and dessenapronoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11228, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Dessau is recorded at frequency rank #10,836, classified as aname, pronounced […]. dessen is at rank #392, tagged as apron, pronounced [ˈdɛsn̩].
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 11228, this pair ranks #1,970,980 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Dessau vs dessen
Shared letters: des. Private to "Dessau": au. Private to "dessen": n.
"Dessau" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "dessen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "Dessau" and "dessen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "Dessau" or "dessen"?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Dessau" and "dessen".
- Full dictionary entry for "Dessau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dessen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,970,980 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Dessau" and "dessen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Dessau vs puzzles". 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 #1,970,980 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.