dartvsderWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“dart” and “der” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#46,097
“dart” frequency rank
#3,909
“der” frequency rank
50006
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dart der
Definition Sorte de papier de pâte grise. Dernier, dernière ou dernière fois.

Where the eye mixes dart and der

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
dart
3 ch
der

Look-alike desk: dart vs der

A purely visual mix-up. dart (\daʁ\) and der (\dɛʁ\) 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 50006, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dart is recorded at frequency rank #46,097, classified as anoun, pronounced \daʁ\. der is at rank #3,909, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɛʁ\.

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 50006, this pair ranks #166,046 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dart vs der

Shared letters: dr. Private to "dart": at. Private to "der": e.

"dart" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "der" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dartadrt · darrt · dartt · datr · ddart · drat

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dart" for "der" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\daʁ\ versus \dɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dart" or "der"?
"der" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,909 in our French list, against #46,097 for "dart". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dart" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "der" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #166,046 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dart" and "der" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dart vs dust". 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 #166,046 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