Which to use
“de” is a preposition and “dm” is a symbol - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1
- “de” frequency rank
- #18,173
- “dm” frequency rank
- 18174
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | de | dm |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Marque un ablatif. Mot indiquant la provenance, l’origine ^([note 1]). | Symbole du décimètre, unité de mesure de longueur du Système international (SI), valant 0,1 mètre (10⁻¹ mètre). |
Letter map: de vs dm
Shared letters muted; letters that set de and dm apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: de is apreposition and dmasymbol. On the page they differ by a single letter - e in “de” becomes m in “dm”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18174, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
de is recorded at frequency rank #1, classified as aprep, pronounced \də\. dm is at rank #18,173, tagged as asymbol.
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 18174, this pair ranks #379,635 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of de vs dm
Shared letters: d. Private to "de": e. Private to "dm": m.
"de" · 2 letters · shape CV · "dm" · 2 letters · shape CC