dona vs down, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“dona” is a noun and “down” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,532
“dona” frequency rank: #4,973
“down” frequency rank: 49505
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	dona	down
Definition	Nominativ Plural des Substantivs donum „Gabe, Geschenk“	deprimiert bis depressiv

Letter map: dona vs down

Shared letters muted; letters that set dona and down apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch

dona

4 ch

down

Grammar separator: dona vs down

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dona is anoun and downanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49505, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dona is recorded at frequency rank #44,532, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. down is at rank #4,973, tagged as anadj, pronounced [daʊ̯n].

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 49505, this pair ranks #1,208,992 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dona vs down

Shared letters: dno. Private to "dona": a. Private to "down": w.

"dona" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "down" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

dona ← ddona · dnoa · doan · odna
down ← ddown · donw · downn · dowwn · dwon · odwn

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dona" and "down" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dona" is a noun and "down" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary German text, does "dona" or "down" show up more?

"down" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,973 in our German list, against #44,532 for "dona". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "dona" vs "down" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "dona" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "down" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,208,992 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"dona" and "down" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dona vs puzzles". 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 #1,208,992 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.