darevsdoneTell them apart

Which to use

“dare” and “done” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#44,517
“dare” frequency rank
#20,888
“done” frequency rank
65405
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dare done
Definition es wagen, zu (+Infinitiv); den Mut haben, zu (+Infinitiv) Partizip Perfekt (past participle) des Verbs do

Where the eye mixes dare and done

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dare and done follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
dare
4 ch
done

Visual trap between dare and done

A purely visual mix-up. dare ([deə(ɹ)]) and done ([dʌn]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65405, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dare is recorded at frequency rank #44,517, classified as averb, pronounced [deə(ɹ)]. done is at rank #20,888, tagged as averb, pronounced [dʌn].

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 65405, this pair ranks #608,038 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dare vs done

Shared letters: de. Private to "dare": ar. Private to "done": no.

"dare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "done" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dare ← darre · ddare · drae
  • done ← ddone · dnoe · doen · donne · odne

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dare" and "done" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([deə(ɹ)] versus [dʌn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dare" or "done"?
"done" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,888 in our German list, against #44,517 for "dare". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dare" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "done" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #608,038 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dare" and "done" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dare vs dörr". 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 #608,038 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