Which to use
“des” is an article and “dz” is a character - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10
- “des” frequency rank
- #47,847
- “dz” frequency rank
- 47857
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | des | dz |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Article indéfini du pluriel. C’est ainsi le pluriel de un ou une. | Lettre de l’alphabet hongrois entre le d et le dzs, utilisée pour \dz\. |
Where the eye mixes des and dz
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 dz is \dzeː\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (article vs character), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47857, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
des is recorded at frequency rank #10, classified as anarticle, pronounced \de\. dz is at rank #47,847, tagged as acharacter, pronounced \dzeː\.
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 47857, this pair ranks #183,607 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of des vs dz
Shared letters: d. Private to "des": es. Private to "dz": z.
"des" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "dz" · 2 letters · shape CC