duvsDuttWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: du is a pronoun, Dutt is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#38
“du” frequency rank
#33,540
“Dutt” frequency rank
33578
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature du Dutt
Definition der Angesprochene oder Angeschriebene, falls nicht die Höflichkeitsform Sie verwendet wird zu einem Knoten geflochtenes Haar am Hinterkopf

Where the eye mixes du and Dutt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

2 ch
du
4 ch
Dutt

Look-alike desk: du vs Dutt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: du is [duː] while Dutt is [dʊt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “du” sits inside “Dutt”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33578, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

du is recorded at frequency rank #38, classified as apron, pronounced [duː]. Dutt is at rank #33,540, tagged as anoun, pronounced [dʊt].

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 33578, this pair ranks #1,682,815 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of du vs Dutt

Shared letters: du. Private to "du": -. Private to "Dutt": t.

"du" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "Dutt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Duttddutt · dtut · dut · udtt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "du" and "Dutt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "du" is a pronoun and "Dutt" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "du" vs "Dutt" - which ranks higher?
"du" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38 in our German list, against #33,540 for "Dutt". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "du" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Dutt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,682,815 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "du" and "Dutt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "duch vs Dutt". 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 #1,682,815 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