deivsdesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dei is a noun, des is an article, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dei” is a noun and “des” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,767
“dei” frequency rank
#10
“des” frequency rank
13777
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dei des
Definition Appel, convocation. Article indéfini du pluriel. C’est ainsi le pluriel de un ou une.

Letter map: dei vs des

Shared letters muted; letters that set dei and des apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
dei
3 ch
des

Role in the sentence - dei and des

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dei is anoun and desanarticle. On the page they differ by a single letter - i in “dei” becomes s in “des”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13777, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dei is recorded at frequency rank #13,767, classified as anoun. 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 13777, this pair ranks #399,580 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dei vs des

Shared letters: de. Private to "dei": i. Private to "des": s.

"dei" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "des" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dei" and "des" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dei" is a noun and "des" an article, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "dei" or "des" show up more?
"des" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10 in our French list, against #13,767 for "dei". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "dei" and "des". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dei" 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 #399,580 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dei" and "des" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dei vs denim". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #399,580 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list