> I've extreme difficulty to differentiate between "deux", "de" and "des"
French here, a few tips:
«deux» and «de» are pronounced the same (almost everywhere at least). The only thing that change is the «liaison»: if you have «deux» in from of a word that starts with a vowel, then you'll need to add a “Z” sound in between: ex. «deux animaux» is being pronounced as if it was spelled «deux Zanimaux».
«des» sounds different, it pronounces like «dé» with an «é» sound like in «thé» or «café», and since it finishes with a “s”, you have a «liaison» as well: «des animaux» => «des Zanimaux».
It's been a long time, but I feel like "de" is just a tad shorter than "deux." Might that be on account of my youthful exposure to French was in the Alsace? It was mostly older speakers.
There may be some slight inter-regional variations in pronunciation (I haven't been in Alsace in ten years so I don't remember about that) but pronouncing both the same way is at least perfectly acceptable, so no foreign speaker should ever bother about that.
French here, a few tips:
«deux» and «de» are pronounced the same (almost everywhere at least). The only thing that change is the «liaison»: if you have «deux» in from of a word that starts with a vowel, then you'll need to add a “Z” sound in between: ex. «deux animaux» is being pronounced as if it was spelled «deux Zanimaux».
«des» sounds different, it pronounces like «dé» with an «é» sound like in «thé» or «café», and since it finishes with a “s”, you have a «liaison» as well: «des animaux» => «des Zanimaux».