DinervsdoneTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#30,512
“Diner” frequency rank
#20,888
“done” frequency rank
51400
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Diner done
Definition mehrgängiges Mahl zu Mittag oder am Abend, das in einem festlichen Rahmen stattfindet Partizip Perfekt (past participle) des Verbs do

Where the eye mixes Diner and done

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Diner
4 ch
done

Look-alike desk: Diner vs done

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Diner is [diˈneː] while done is [dʌn]. 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 51400, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Diner is recorded at frequency rank #30,512, classified as anoun, pronounced [diˈneː]. 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 51400, this pair ranks #1,136,956 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Diner vs done

Shared letters: den. Private to "Diner": ir. Private to "done": o.

"Diner" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "done" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Dinerddiner · dienr · dinerr · dinre · dnier
  • doneddone · dnoe · doen · donne · odne

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Diner" for "done" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Diner" is a noun and "done" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Diner" or "done" show up more?
"done" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,888 in our German list, against #30,512 for "Diner". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Diner" 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 #1,136,956 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Diner" and "done" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "diet vs Diner". 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 #1,136,956 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