drewvsDruWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: drew is a verb, Dru is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“drew” is a verb and “Dru” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,226
“drew” frequency rank
#47,026
“Dru” frequency rank
50252
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature drew Dru
Definition simple past of draw A diminutive of the male given name Andrew, also used as a formal given name.

Same sound, different letters: drew vs Dru

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 2 letters.

4 ch
drew
3 ch
Dru

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: drew and Dru carry the same recorded pronunciation, /dɹuː/. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other aname, 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 50252, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

drew is recorded at frequency rank #3,226, classified as averb, pronounced /dɹuː/. Dru is at rank #47,026, tagged as aname, pronounced /dɹuː/.

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 50252, this pair ranks #175,956 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of drew vs Dru

Shared letters: dr. Private to "drew": ew. Private to "Dru": u.

"drew" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "Dru" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • drewddrew · derw · dreww · drrew · drwe · rdew

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "drew" and "Dru" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "drew" is a verb and "Dru" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "drew" or "Dru"?
"drew" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,226 in our English list, against #47,026 for "Dru". 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