doingvsdoneWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#31,509
“doing” frequency rank
#20,888
“done” frequency rank
52397
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature doing done
Definition Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs do Partizip Perfekt (past participle) des Verbs do

Where the eye mixes doing and done

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

5 ch
doing
4 ch
done

Visual trap between doing and done

A purely visual mix-up. doing ([ˈduːɪŋ]) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52397, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

doing is recorded at frequency rank #31,509, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈduːɪŋ]. 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 52397, this pair ranks #1,098,547 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of doing vs done

Shared letters: dno. Private to "doing": gi. Private to "done": e.

"doing" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "done" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • doingddoing · diong · doign · doingg · doinng · donig · oding
  • doneddone · dnoe · doen · donne · odne

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "doing" and "done" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈduːɪŋ] versus [dʌn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "doing" or "done"?
"done" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,888 in our German list, against #31,509 for "doing". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "doing" 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 #1,098,547 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "doing" and "done" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "doing vs domini". 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 #1,098,547 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