donevsdonnaConfusable pair

Quick tell: done is a verb, donna is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“done” is a verb and “donna” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#20,888
“done” frequency rank
#15,860
“donna” frequency rank
36748
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature done donna
Definition Partizip Perfekt (past participle) des Verbs do die Frau

Where the eye mixes done and donna

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

4 ch
done
5 ch
donna

Visual trap between done and donna

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: done is [dʌn] while donna is [ˈdɔnna]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36748, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

done is recorded at frequency rank #20,888, classified as averb, pronounced [dʌn]. donna is at rank #15,860, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈdɔnna].

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 36748, this pair ranks #1,607,658 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of done vs donna

Shared letters: dno. Private to "done": e. Private to "donna": a.

"done" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "donna" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • doneddone · dnoe · doen · donne · odne
  • donnaddonna · dnona · donan · odnna

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "done" for "donna" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "done" is a verb and "donna" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "done" or "donna" show up more?
"donna" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,860 in our German list, against #20,888 for "done". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "done" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "donna" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,607,658 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "done" and "donna" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "done vs dörr". 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 #1,607,658 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