danvsdrawTell them apart

Quick tell: dan is a noun, draw is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dan” is a noun and “draw” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,415
“dan” frequency rank
#44,535
“draw” frequency rank
48950
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dan draw
Definition Zeitraum zwischen Sonnenaufgang und Sonnenuntergang; Tag zeichnen

Where the eye mixes dan and draw

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
dan
4 ch
draw

Visual trap between dan and draw

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dan is [ˈdaːn] while draw is [drɔː]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48950, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dan is recorded at frequency rank #4,415, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈdaːn]. draw is at rank #44,535, tagged as averb, pronounced [drɔː].

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 48950, this pair ranks #1,229,554 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dan vs draw

Shared letters: ad. Private to "dan": n. Private to "draw": rw.

"dan" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "draw" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • drawdarw · ddraw · draww · drraw · drwa · rdaw

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dan" and "draw" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dan" is a noun and "draw" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "dan" or "draw" show up more?
"dan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,415 in our German list, against #44,535 for "draw". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "draw" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,229,554 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dan" and "draw" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "draw vs duran". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,229,554 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list