Which to use
“des” is an article and “dix” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10
- “des” frequency rank
- #581
- “dix” frequency rank
- 591
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | des | dix |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Article indéfini du pluriel. C’est ainsi le pluriel de un ou une. | Neuf plus un, adjectif numéral cardinal correspondant au nombre 10. |
Where the eye mixes des and dix
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: des is \de\ while dix is \dis\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 591, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
des is recorded at frequency rank #10, classified as anarticle, pronounced \de\. dix is at rank #581, tagged as anadj, pronounced \dis\.
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 591, this pair ranks #439,417 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of des vs dix
Shared letters: d. Private to "des": es. Private to "dix": ix.
"des" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "dix" · 3 letters · shape CVC