déjàvsDumaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: déjà is a adverb, Duma is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“déjà” is an adverb and “Duma” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,541
“déjà” frequency rank
#41,116
“Duma” frequency rank
85657
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature déjà Duma
Definition zu einem früheren Zeitpunkt als erwartet russisches Unterhaus

Where the eye mixes déjà and Duma

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. déjà and Duma follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
déjà
4 ch
Duma

Look-alike desk: déjà vs Duma

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: déjà is [de.ʒa] while Duma is [ˈduːma]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 85657, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

déjà is recorded at frequency rank #44,541, classified as anadv, pronounced [de.ʒa]. Duma is at rank #41,116, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈduːma].

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 85657, this pair ranks #105,002 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of déjà vs Duma

Shared letters: d. Private to "déjà": jàé. Private to "Duma": amu.

"déjà" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Duma" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Duma ← dduma · dmua · duam · dumma · udma

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "déjà" for "Duma" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "déjà" is an adverb and "Duma" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "déjà" vs "Duma" - which ranks higher?
"Duma" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,116 in our German list, against #44,541 for "déjà". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "déjà" and "Duma" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "déjà" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Duma" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #105,002 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "déjà" and "Duma" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déjà vs dess". 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 #105,002 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