Which to use
“dear” is an adjective and “deu” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,457
- “dear” frequency rank
- #36,794
- “deu” frequency rank
- 72251
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dear | deu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cher, chère. | Dieu. |
Letter map: dear vs deu
Shared letters muted; letters that set dear and deu apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Role in the sentence - dear and deu
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dear is anadjective and deuanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72251, 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\. deu is at rank #36,794, tagged as anoun.
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 72251, this pair ranks #44,659 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dear vs deu
Shared letters: de. Private to "dear": ar. Private to "deu": u.
"dear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "deu" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- dear ← ddear · dearr · dera · edar
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dear" for "deu" ever safe?
Which is more common, "dear" or "deu"?
After this comparison
Pair "dear" vs "deu" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "dear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "deu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #44,659 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dear" and "deu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DCI vs deu". 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 #44,659 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.