Which to use
“dell” is a noun and “dello” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,710
- “dell” frequency rank
- #35,458
- “dello” frequency rank
- 54168
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dell | dello |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Vallon. | Contraction de di (« de ») et lo (« le »), du. |
Where the eye mixes dell and dello
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between dell and dello
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dell is \dɛl\ while dello is \ˈdel.lo\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “dell” sits inside “dello”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs article), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54168, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dell is recorded at frequency rank #18,710, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɛl\. dello is at rank #35,458, tagged as anarticle, pronounced \ˈdel.lo\.
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 54168, this pair ranks #135,797 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dell vs dello
Shared letters: del. Private to "dell": -. Private to "dello": o.
"dell" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "dello" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dell" and "dello" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "dell" or "dello" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "dell" and "dello" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dell" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dello" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #135,797 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dell" and "dello" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "degli vs dello". 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 #135,797 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.