dog'svsdon'tWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dog's is a noun, don't is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dog's” is a noun and “don't” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,759
“dog's” frequency rank
#68
“don't” frequency rank
12827
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dog's don't
Definition shortened form of dog's bollocks. do not (negative auxiliary).

Letter map: dog's vs don't

Shared letters muted; letters that set dog's and don't apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
dog's
5 ch
don't

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dog's is anoun and don'taverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12827, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dog's is recorded at frequency rank #12,759, classified as anoun. don't is at rank #68, tagged as averb, pronounced /dəʊnt/.

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 12827, this pair ranks #479,338 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dog's vs don't

Shared letters: do. Private to "dog's": gs. Private to "don't": nt.

"dog's" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "don't" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dog's" and "don't" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dog's" is a noun and "don't" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dog's" or "don't"?
"don't" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #68 in our English list, against #12,759 for "dog's". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list