dasvsdeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: das is a noun, de is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“das” is a noun and “de” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,761
“das” frequency rank
#1
“de” frequency rank
12762
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature das de
Definition Sida. Marque un ablatif. Mot indiquant la provenance, l’origine ^([note 1]).

Letter map: das vs de

Shared letters muted; letters that set das and de apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
das
2 ch
de

Part-of-speech tell for das / de

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: das is anoun and deapreposition. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12762, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

das is recorded at frequency rank #12,761, classified as anoun. de is at rank #1, tagged as aprep, pronounced \də\.

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 12762, this pair ranks #403,877 of 440,172 scored French 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 not even the same part of speech. "das" is a noun and "de" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "das" or "de" show up more?
"de" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1 in our French list, against #12,761 for "das". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "das" and "de". Here's where to go from here.

  • 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 #403,877 of 440,172 scored French 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 dray". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #403,877 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