do

[doː]

/[doː]/ particle

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“do” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #2,290) as a particle. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#2,290
frequency rank, German
2,764
“D” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - beim Solmisieren oder Solfeggieren benutzte Silbe zum Singen eines bestimmten Tons aus der Tonleiter

Corpus desk

Index DE-do · do · German

do · rank #2,290 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #2,290
  • LEN-SHORT 2 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,764
  • PHOTO-FINISH bisherigen

Nearest frequency peer: bisherigen (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Frequency neighbourhood for “do”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “do” sits against the nearest ranked German headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

do vs du
50% similar
do vs Ds
0% similar
do vs DW
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for do
PropertyValue
Headworddo
LanguageGerman
Part of speechParticle
IPA[doː]
Letters2
Frequency rank#2,290
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Wo “do” in der deutschen Häufigkeit sitzt

Die Häufigkeit läuft von den wenigen Alltagswörtern (links) bis zur langen, seltenen Schwanzseite (rechts).doliegt hier:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Ticks laufen logarithmisch; jeder ist rund zehnmal seltener. In derselben Seltenheitsbandbreite liegen „bisherigen“ (#2,289), „einiger“ (#2,291), „betroffenen“ (#2,288). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for do is neighbouring look-alikes ("du", "Ds", …), not just typos; it is aparticle pronounced [doː]. Frequency #2,290 among 2,764 “D” headwords. Gloss: "beim Solmisieren oder Solfeggieren benutzte Silbe zum Singen eines bestimmten Tons aus der Tonleiter".

do has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular German conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "du", "Ds", "DW", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct German form is do, spelled D-O.

Definition

  1. 1
    beim Solmisieren oder Solfeggieren benutzte Silbe zum Singen eines bestimmten Tons aus der Tonleiter

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how do appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Beim Solmisieren benutzt man die Tonsilben do, re, mi, fa, sol, la und si.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "do"?
"do" is spelled D-O. The IPA pronunciation is [doː].
What does "do" mean?
As a particle, "do" means: beim Solmisieren oder Solfeggieren benutzte Silbe zum Singen eines bestimmten Tons aus der Tonleiter
What words are commonly confused with "do"?
"do" is commonly confused with "du", "Ds", "DW". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "do"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "do" is [doː]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "do" come from?
"do" is a German word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

What to do next

You've looked up "do". Here's where to go from here.

  • "do" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "du". View pair
  • Usage frequency rank #2,290 among German headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more German words in the "D" letter cohort. D–Z browse

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list