Abstract In this paper, we study the relation between the deficiencies concerning a meromorphic function f(z), its derivative f′(z) and differential-difference monomials f(z) m f(z+c)f′(z), f(z+c) n f′(z), f(z) m f(z+c). The main results of this paper are listed as follows: Let f(z) be a meromorphic function of finite order satisfying lim sup r → + ∞ T ( r , f ) T ( r , f ′ ) < + ∞ , $$\mathop {\lim \,{\rm sup}}\limits_{r \to + \infty } {{T(r,\,f)} \over {T(r,\,f')}}{\rm{ &#x003C; }} + \infty ,$$ and c be a non-zero complex constant, then δ(∞, f(z) m f(z+c)f′(z))≥δ(∞, f′) and δ(∞,f(z+c) n f′(z))≥ δ(∞, f′). We also investigate the value distribution of some differential-difference polynomials taking small function a(z) with respect to f(z).