donvsducWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,645
“don” frequency rank
#48,075
“duc” frequency rank
51720
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature don duc
Definition Spende, Gabe der Herzog, der Führer

Where the eye mixes don and duc

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
don
3 ch
duc

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. don ([dɔ̃]) and duc ([duk]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51720, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

don is recorded at frequency rank #3,645, classified as anoun, pronounced [dɔ̃]. duc is at rank #48,075, tagged as anoun, pronounced [duk].

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 51720, this pair ranks #1,124,675 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of don vs duc

Shared letters: d. Private to "don": no. Private to "duc": cu.

"don" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "duc" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "don" and "duc" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([dɔ̃] versus [duk]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "don" or "duc"?
"don" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,645 in our German list, against #48,075 for "duc". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list