das vs de, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“das” and “de” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,675
“das” frequency rank: #582
“de” frequency rank: 11257
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	das	de
Definition	plural of da (“father”)	The name of the Cyrillic script letter Д / д.

Where the eye mixes das and de

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

das

2 ch

Visual trap between das and de

A purely visual mix-up. das (/dɑːz/) and de (/ˈdɛ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11257, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

das is recorded at frequency rank #10,675, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɑːz/. de is at rank #582, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdɛ/.

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 11257, this pair ranks #488,040 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of das vs de

Shared letters: d. Private to "das": as. Private to "de": e.

"das" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "de" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "das" and "de" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (/dɑːz/ versus /ˈdɛ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

In ordinary English text, does "das" or "de" show up more?

"de" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #582 in our English list, against #10,675 for "das". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

Full dictionary entry for "das" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "de" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #488,040 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"das" and "de" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "das vs dox". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #488,040 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.