Which to use
“doku” is a noun and “Donau” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,031
- “doku” frequency rank
- #5,578
- “Donau” frequency rank
- 12609
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | doku | Donau |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Akkusativ Singular des Substantivs doks | mitteleuropäischer und südosteuropäischer Fluss, Strom, der im Schwarzwald entspringt, Deutschland, Österreich, die Slowakei, Ungarn, Kroatien, Serbien, Rumänien, Bulgarien, Moldawien und die Ukraine durchfließt sowie zum Teil Grenzen zwischen diesen Staaten bildet, um im Donaudelta ins Schwarze Meer zu münden |
Where the eye mixes doku and Donau
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. doku runs 4 letters (CVCV) against Donau's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses doku with Donau
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: doku is [ˈdoku] while Donau is [ˈdoːnaʊ̯]. 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 name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12609, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
doku is recorded at frequency rank #7,031, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈdoku]. Donau is at rank #5,578, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈdoːnaʊ̯].
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 12609, this pair ranks #1,963,144 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of doku vs Donau
Shared letters: dou. Private to "doku": k. Private to "Donau": an.
"doku" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "Donau" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "doku" and "Donau" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "doku" or "Donau" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "doku" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Donau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,963,144 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "doku" and "Donau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Docks vs doku". 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 #1,963,144 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.