dellavsdépluConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#14,444
“della” frequency rank
#35,002
“déplu” frequency rank
49446
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature della déplu
Definition Article contracté souvent traduit par De la. Participe passé masculin singulier de déplaire.

Where the eye mixes della and déplu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. della and déplu 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
déplu

Why the eye confuses della with déplu

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: della is \ˈdel.la\ while déplu is \de.ply\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (article vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49446, 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\. déplu is at rank #35,002, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ply\.

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 49446, this pair ranks #170,602 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of della vs déplu

Shared letters: dl. Private to "della": ae. Private to "déplu": pué.

"della" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "déplu" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • della ← ddella · delal · dlela · edlla

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "della" for "déplu" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "della" is an article and "déplu" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "della" or "déplu" show up more?
"della" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,444 in our French list, against #35,002 for "déplu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "della" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "déplu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #170,602 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "della" and "déplu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "degli vs déplu". 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 #170,602 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