Which to use
“dem” is a noun and “des” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,107
- “dem” frequency rank
- #10
- “des” frequency rank
- 16117
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dem | des |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | démonstration d’un produit pour en faire la promotion. | Article indéfini du pluriel. C’est ainsi le pluriel de un ou une. |
Letter map: dem vs des
Shared letters muted; letters that set dem and des apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for dem / des
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dem is anoun and desanarticle. On the page they differ by a single letter - m in “dem” becomes s in “des”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16117, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dem is recorded at frequency rank #16,107, classified as anoun. des is at rank #10, tagged as anarticle, pronounced \de\.
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 16117, this pair ranks #389,312 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dem vs des
Shared letters: de. Private to "dem": m. Private to "des": s.
"dem" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "des" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dem" and "des" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "dem" vs "des" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
You've compared "dem" and "des". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "dem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "des" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #389,312 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dem" and "des" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dem vs denim". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #389,312 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.