dear vs délai, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“dear” is an adjective and “délai” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,457
“dear” frequency rank: #2,711
“délai” frequency rank: 38168
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	dear	délai
Definition	Cher, chère.	Temps accordé pour faire une chose, ou à l’expiration duquel on sera tenu de faire une certaine chose.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set dear and délai apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

dear

5 ch

délai

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dear is \ˈdɪɹ\ while délai is \de.lɛ\. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38168, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dear is recorded at frequency rank #35,457, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈdɪɹ\. délai is at rank #2,711, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.lɛ\.

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 38168, this pair ranks #257,178 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dear vs délai

Shared letters: ad. Private to "dear": er. Private to "délai": ilé.

"dear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "délai" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

dear ← ddear · dearr · dera · edar

Frequency comparison

dear#35,457

délai#2,711

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dear" and "délai" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dear" is an adjective and "délai" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "dear" or "délai"?

"délai" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,711 in our French list, against #35,457 for "dear". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering dear vs délai

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “dear”; for a noun, it's “délai”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “dear” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable