DaeshvsdesConfusable pair

Quick tell: Daesh is a name, des is an article, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Daesh” is a name and “des” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,384
“Daesh” frequency rank
#10
“des” frequency rank
11394
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Daesh des
Definition Variante orthographique de Daech. Article indéfini du pluriel. C’est ainsi le pluriel de un ou une.

Where the eye mixes Daesh and des

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Daesh
3 ch
des

Why the eye confuses Daesh with des

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Daesh is \da.ɛʃ\ while des is \de\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs article), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11394, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Daesh is recorded at frequency rank #11,384, classified as aname, pronounced \da.ɛʃ\. des is at rank #10, tagged as anarticle, pronounced \de\.

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 11394, this pair ranks #409,310 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Daesh vs des

Shared letters: des. Private to "Daesh": ah. Private to "des": -.

"Daesh" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "des" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Daeshadesh · daehs · daeshh · daessh · daseh · ddaesh · deash

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Daesh" and "des" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Daesh" is a name and "des" an article, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "Daesh" or "des" show up more?
"des" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10 in our French list, against #11,384 for "Daesh". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Daesh" 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 #409,310 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Daesh" and "des" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DAE vs Daesh". 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 #409,310 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list