dép vs des, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#41,754
“dép” frequency rank: #10
“des” frequency rank: 41764
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	dép	des
Definition	Dépanneur.	Article indéfini du pluriel. C’est ainsi le pluriel de un ou une.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set dép and des apart are highlighted. They share 1 letter in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

dép

3 ch

des

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dép is \dɛp\ while des is \de\. 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 (noun vs article), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41764, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dép is recorded at frequency rank #41,754, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɛp\. 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 41764, this pair ranks #230,675 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dép vs des

Shared letters: d. Private to "dép": pé. Private to "des": es.

"dép" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "des" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequency comparison

dép#41,754

des#10

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dép" and "des" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dép" is a noun and "des" an article, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "dép" or "des"?

"des" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10 in our French list, against #41,754 for "dép". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering dép vs des

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “dép”; for an article, it's “des”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “dép” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable