dun vs duo, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“dun” is an adjective and “duo” is a num - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,461
“dun” frequency rank: #5,822
“duo” frequency rank: 43283
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	dun	duo
Definition	im Zustand nach Genuss von zu viel Alkohol	zwei

Letter map: dun vs duo

Shared letters muted; letters that set dun and duo apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch

dun

3 ch

duo

Role in the sentence - dun and duo

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dun is anadjective and duoanum. On the page they differ by a single letter - n in “dun” becomes o in “duo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43283, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dun is recorded at frequency rank #37,461, classified as anadj, pronounced [duːn]. duo is at rank #5,822, tagged as anum, pronounced […].

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 43283, this pair ranks #1,422,949 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dun vs duo

Shared letters: du. Private to "dun": n. Private to "duo": o.

"dun" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "duo" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dun" for "duo" ever safe?

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

Which is more common, "dun" or "duo"?

"duo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,822 in our German list, against #37,461 for "dun". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "dun" and "duo".

Full dictionary entry for "dun" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "duo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,422,949 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"dun" and "duo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dun vs duran". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,422,949 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.