dellovsdésoConfusable pair

Quick tell: dello is a article, déso is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dello” is an article and “déso” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,458
“dello” frequency rank
#37,302
“déso” frequency rank
72760
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dello déso
Definition Contraction de di (« de ») et lo (« le »), du. Désolé.

Where the eye mixes dello and déso

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

5 ch
dello
4 ch
déso

Look-alike desk: dello vs déso

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dello is \ˈdel.lo\ while déso is \de.zo\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (article vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72760, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dello is recorded at frequency rank #35,458, classified as anarticle, pronounced \ˈdel.lo\. déso is at rank #37,302, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.zo\.

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 72760, this pair ranks #42,854 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dello vs déso

Shared letters: do. Private to "dello": el. Private to "déso": .

"dello" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "déso" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • delloddello · delo · delol · dlelo · edllo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dello" for "déso" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dello" is an article and "déso" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dello" vs "déso" - which ranks higher?
"dello" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,458 in our French list, against #37,302 for "déso". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dello" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "déso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,854 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dello" and "déso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déso vs dust". 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 #42,854 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