dellavsDelleConfusable pair

Quick tell: della is a article, Delle is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#14,444
“della” frequency rank
#27,034
“Delle” frequency rank
41478
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature della Delle
Definition Article contracté souvent traduit par De la. Commune française, située dans le département du Territoire de Belfort.

Where the eye mixes della and Delle

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. della and Delle follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
della
5 ch
Delle

Why the eye confuses della with Delle

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: della is \ˈdel.la\ while Delle is \dɛl\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “della” becomes e in “Delle”, and the parts of speech differ too (article vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41478, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

della is recorded at frequency rank #14,444, classified as anarticle, pronounced \ˈdel.la\. Delle is at rank #27,034, tagged as aname, pronounced \dɛl\.

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 41478, this pair ranks #232,781 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of della vs Delle

Shared letters: del. Private to "della": a. Private to "Delle": -.

"della" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Delle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • della ← ddella · delal · dlela · edlla
  • Delle ← ddelle · dele · delel · dlele · edlle

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "della" and "Delle" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "della" is an article and "Delle" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "della" or "Delle" show up more?
"della" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,444 in our French list, against #27,034 for "Delle". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "della" and "Delle" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "della" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Delle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #232,781 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "della" and "Delle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dèche vs Delle". 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 #232,781 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