denvsDrsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: den is a article, Drs is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“den” is an article and “Drs” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,639
“den” frequency rank
#45,556
“Drs” frequency rank
55195
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature den Drs
Definition Accusatif masculin singulier de der. Pluriel de Dr ou Dʳ.

Where the eye mixes den and Drs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
den
3 ch
Drs

Look-alike desk: den vs Drs

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: den is \deːn\ while Drs is \dɔk.tœʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (article vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55195, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

den is recorded at frequency rank #9,639, classified as anarticle, pronounced \deːn\. Drs is at rank #45,556, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɔk.tœʁ\.

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 55195, this pair ranks #129,035 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of den vs Drs

Shared letters: d. Private to "den": en. Private to "Drs": rs.

"den" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Drs" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "den" and "Drs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "den" is an article and "Drs" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "den" or "Drs" show up more?
"den" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,639 in our French list, against #45,556 for "Drs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "den" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Drs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #129,035 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "den" and "Drs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dray vs Drs". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #129,035 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