 The De Re / De Dicto Distinction. A particularly rich application of the possible world analysis of intensions  concerns the analysis of the venerable distinction between de  re and de dicto   modality.[11]  Among the strongest modal intuitions is that the possession of a  property has a modal character — that things exemplify, or fail to exemplify, some properties necessarily, or  essentially, and others only accidentally. Thus, for example, intuitively, John's dog Algol is a pet accidentally; under less fortunate circumstances, she might have been, say, a stray that no one ever adopted. But she is a dog essentially; she couldn't have been a flower, a musical performance, a crocodile or any other kind of thing. 