donevsdroheWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#20,888
“done” frequency rank
#34,050
“drohe” frequency rank
54938
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature done drohe
Definition Partizip Perfekt (past participle) des Verbs do 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs drohen

Where the eye mixes done and drohe

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

4 ch
done
5 ch
drohe

Visual trap between done and drohe

A purely visual mix-up. done ([dʌn]) and drohe ([ˈdʁoːə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54938, 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]. drohe is at rank #34,050, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈdʁoːə].

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 54938, this pair ranks #999,025 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of done vs drohe

Shared letters: deo. Private to "done": n. Private to "drohe": hr.

"done" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "drohe" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • doneddone · dnoe · doen · donne · odne
  • droheddrohe · dorhe · drhoe · droeh · drohhe · drrohe · rdohe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "done" for "drohe" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([dʌn] versus [ˈdʁoːə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "done" vs "drohe" - which ranks higher?
"done" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,888 in our German list, against #34,050 for "drohe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "done" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "drohe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #999,025 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "done" and "drohe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "drohe vs dröhnt". 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 #999,025 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