Which to use
“Doug” is a name and “dug” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,896
- “Doug” frequency rank
- #8,784
- “dug” frequency rank
- 15680
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Doug | dug |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A diminutive of the male given name Douglas. | simple past and past participle of dig (replacing earlier digged) |
Same sound, different letters: Doug vs dug
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: Doug and dug carry the same recorded pronunciation, /dʌɡ/. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is aname, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15680, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Doug is recorded at frequency rank #6,896, classified as aname, pronounced /dʌɡ/. dug is at rank #8,784, tagged as averb, pronounced /dʌɡ/.
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 15680, this pair ranks #462,485 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Doug vs dug
Shared letters: dgu. Private to "Doug": o. Private to "dug": -.
"Doug" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "dug" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- Doug ← ddoug · dogu · dougg · duog · odug