dokuvsduTell them apart

Quick tell: doku is a noun, du is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“doku” is a noun and “du” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,031
“doku” frequency rank
#38
“du” frequency rank
7069
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature doku du
Definition Akkusativ Singular des Substantivs doks der Angesprochene oder Angeschriebene, falls nicht die Höflichkeitsform Sie verwendet wird

Where the eye mixes doku and du

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

4 ch
doku
2 ch
du

Look-alike desk: doku vs du

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: doku is [ˈdoku] while du is [duː]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7069, 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]. du is at rank #38, tagged as apron, pronounced [duː].

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 7069, this pair ranks #1,989,484 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of doku vs du

Shared letters: du. Private to "doku": ko. Private to "du": -.

"doku" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "du" · 2 letters · shape CV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dokuddoku · dkou · dokku · douk · odku

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "doku" for "du" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "doku" is a noun and "du" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "doku" vs "du" - which ranks higher?
"du" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38 in our German list, against #7,031 for "doku". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "doku" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "du" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,989,484 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "doku" and "du" 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 #1,989,484 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