dañavsdonanTell them apart

Which to use

“daña” and “donan” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#16,808
“daña” frequency rank
#41,873
“donan” frequency rank
58681
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature daña donan
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de dañar. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de donar.

Where the eye mixes daña and donan

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. daña runs 4 letters (CVCV) against donan's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
daña
5 ch
donan

Visual trap between daña and donan

A purely visual mix-up. daña ([ˈd̪aɲa]) and donan ([ˈd̪onãn]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58681, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

daña is recorded at frequency rank #16,808, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈd̪aɲa]. donan is at rank #41,873, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈd̪onãn].

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 58681, this pair ranks #65,569 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of daña vs donan

Shared letters: ad. Private to "daña": ñ. Private to "donan": no.

"daña" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "donan" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • donan ← ddonan · dnoan · doann · donann · donnan · odnan

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "daña" and "donan" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈd̪aɲa] versus [ˈd̪onãn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "daña" vs "donan" - which ranks higher?
"daña" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,808 in our Spanish list, against #41,873 for "donan". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "daña" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "donan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #65,569 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "daña" and "donan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "donan vs dont". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #65,569 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list