Which to use
“de” is a preposition and “Deum” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1
- “de” frequency rank
- #44,977
- “Deum” frequency rank
- 44978
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | de | Deum |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Marque un ablatif. Mot indiquant la provenance, l’origine ^([note 1]). | Accusatif de Deus. |
Where the eye mixes de and Deum
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: de vs Deum
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: de is \də\ while Deum is \ˈde.um\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “de” sits inside “Deum”, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44978, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
de is recorded at frequency rank #1, classified as aprep, pronounced \də\. Deum is at rank #44,977, tagged as aname, pronounced \ˈde.um\.
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 44978, this pair ranks #206,350 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of de vs Deum
Shared letters: de. Private to "de": -. Private to "Deum": mu.
"de" · 2 letters · shape CV · "Deum" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- Deum ← ddeum · demu · deumm · duem · edum
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "de" for "Deum" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "de" or "Deum" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "de" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Deum" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #206,350 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "de" and "Deum" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "denim vs Deum". 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 #206,350 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.