dogsvsdonTell them apart

Which to use

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

#18,207
“dogs” frequency rank
#3,645
“don” frequency rank
21852
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dogs don
Definition Dogge Spende, Gabe

Where the eye mixes dogs and don

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

4 ch
dogs
3 ch
don

Visual trap between dogs and don

A purely visual mix-up. dogs ([doks]) and don ([dɔ̃]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21852, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dogs is recorded at frequency rank #18,207, classified as anoun, pronounced [doks]. don is at rank #3,645, tagged as anoun, pronounced [dɔ̃].

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 21852, this pair ranks #1,881,380 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dogs vs don

Shared letters: do. Private to "dogs": gs. Private to "don": n.

"dogs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "don" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dogsddogs · dgos · doggs · dogss · dosg · odgs

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dogs" and "don" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([doks] versus [dɔ̃]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dogs" or "don"?
"don" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,645 in our German list, against #18,207 for "dogs". 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 "dogs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "don" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,881,380 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dogs" and "don" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Docks vs dogs". 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 #1,881,380 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