drug vs du, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#38,692
“drug” frequency rank: #38
“du” frequency rank: 38730
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	drug	du
Definition	Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs drag	der Angesprochene oder Angeschriebene, falls nicht die Höflichkeitsform Sie verwendet wird

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set drug and du apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

drug

2 ch

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: drug is [dɹʌɡ] 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 (verb vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38730, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

drug is recorded at frequency rank #38,692, classified as averb, pronounced [dɹʌɡ]. 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 38730, this pair ranks #1,556,144 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of drug vs du

Shared letters: du. Private to "drug": gr. Private to "du": -.

"drug" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "du" · 2 letters · shape CV

Known mistypes of this pair

drug ← ddrug · drgu · drrug · drugg · durg · rdug

Frequency comparison

drug#38,692

du#38

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "drug" and "du" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "drug" is a verb and "du" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "drug" or "du"?

"du" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38 in our German list, against #38,692 for "drug". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering drug vs du

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “drug”; for a pronoun, it's “du”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “drug” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable