Which to use
“dead” is an adjective and “des” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,298
- “dead” frequency rank
- #10
- “des” frequency rank
- 7308
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dead | des |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mort, sans vie. Qui était en vie mais ne l’est plus. | Article indéfini du pluriel. C’est ainsi le pluriel de un ou une. |
Where the eye mixes dead and des
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between dead and des
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dead is \dɛd\ while des is \de\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs article), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7308, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dead is recorded at frequency rank #7,298, classified as anadj, pronounced \dɛd\. des is at rank #10, tagged as anarticle, pronounced \de\.
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 7308, this pair ranks #423,558 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dead vs des
Shared letters: de. Private to "dead": a. Private to "des": s.
"dead" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "des" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dead ← daed · ddead · deadd · deda · edad
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "dead" and "des" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "dead" or "des" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "dead" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "des" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #423,558 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dead" and "des" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dead vs dray". 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 #423,558 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.