dervsdiezWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“der” and “diez” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#3,909
“der” frequency rank
#48,450
“diez” frequency rank
52359
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature der diez
Definition Dernier, dernière ou dernière fois. Forme mutée de tiez par adoucissement (t → d).

Where the eye mixes der and diez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. der runs 3 letters (CVC) against diez's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
der
4 ch
diez

Look-alike desk: der vs diez

A purely visual mix-up. der (\dɛʁ\) and diez (\ˈdiːɛs\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52359, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

der is recorded at frequency rank #3,909, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɛʁ\. diez is at rank #48,450, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈdiːɛs\.

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 52359, this pair ranks #148,277 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of der vs diez

Shared letters: de. Private to "der": r. Private to "diez": iz.

"der" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "diez" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • diez ← ddiez · deiz · diezz · dize · idez

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "der" and "diez" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\dɛʁ\ versus \ˈdiːɛs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "der" vs "diez" - which ranks higher?
"der" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,909 in our French list, against #48,450 for "diez". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "der" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "diez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #148,277 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "der" and "diez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "diez vs dz". 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 #148,277 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