delavsdellaTell them apart

Quick tell: dela is a verb, della is an article, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dela” is a verb and “della” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,803
“dela” frequency rank
#14,444
“della” frequency rank
34247
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dela della
Definition Exprimer un sentiment par un jeu de mine. Article contracté souvent traduit par De la.

Letter map: dela vs della

Shared letters muted; letters that set dela and della apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. dela runs 4 letters (CVCV) against della's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
dela
5 ch
della

Role in the sentence - dela and della

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dela is averb and dellaanarticle. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34247, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dela is recorded at frequency rank #19,803, classified as averb. della is at rank #14,444, tagged as anarticle, pronounced \ˈdel.la\.

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 34247, this pair ranks #285,143 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dela vs della

Shared letters: adel. Private to "dela": -. Private to "della": -.

"dela" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "della" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dela ← ddela · dlea · edla
  • della ← ddella · delal · dlela · edlla

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dela" for "della" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dela" is a verb and "della" an article, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dela" vs "della" - which ranks higher?
"della" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,444 in our French list, against #19,803 for "dela". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "dela" and "della". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dela" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "della" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #285,143 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dela" and "della" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dela vs doxa". 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 #285,143 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