do's vs dour, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“do's” is a noun and “dour” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,780
“do's” frequency rank: #49,880
“dour” frequency rank: 89660
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	do's	dour
Definition	Alternative form of dos (plural of do)	Stern, harsh and forbidding.

Where the spellings diverge

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

4 ch

do's

4 ch

dour

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: do's is anoun and douranadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 89660, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

do's is recorded at frequency rank #39,780, classified as anoun. dour is at rank #49,880, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈdʊə/.

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 89660, this pair ranks #4,959 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of do's vs dour

Shared letters: do. Private to "do's": s. Private to "dour": ru.

"do's" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "dour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

dour ← ddour · doru · dourr · duor · odur

Frequency comparison

do's#39,780

dour#49,880

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "do's" and "dour" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "do's" is a noun and "dour" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "do's" or "dour"?

"do's" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,780 in our English list, against #49,880 for "dour". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering do's vs dour

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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