devsdrWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1
“de” frequency rank
#1,995
“dr” frequency rank
1996
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature de dr
Definition Marque un ablatif. Mot indiquant la provenance, l’origine ^([note 1]). Symbole du drachme (dram), unité de mesure de masse ou de volume anglo-saxonne.

Letter map: de vs dr

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

2 ch
de
2 ch
dr

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: de is apreposition and drasymbol. On the page they differ by a single letter - e in “de” becomes r in “dr”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1996, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

de is recorded at frequency rank #1, classified as aprep, pronounced \də\. dr is at rank #1,995, 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 1996, this pair ranks #436,980 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of de vs dr

Shared letters: d. Private to "de": e. Private to "dr": r.

"de" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "dr" · 2 letters · shape CC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "de" and "dr" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "de" is a preposition and "dr" a symbol, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "de" or "dr"?
"de" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1 in our French list, against #1,995 for "dr". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list