dañanvsdonanTell them apart

Which to use

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

#24,097
“dañan” frequency rank
#41,873
“donan” frequency rank
65970
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dañan donan
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 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 dañan and donan

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. dañan and donan follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
dañan
5 ch
donan

Look-alike desk: dañan vs donan

A purely visual mix-up. dañan ([ˈd̪aɲãn]) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65970, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dañan is recorded at frequency rank #24,097, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈd̪aɲãn]. 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 65970, this pair ranks #41,127 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dañan vs donan

Shared letters: adn. Private to "dañan": ñ. Private to "donan": o.

"dañan" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "donan" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dañan" for "donan" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈd̪aɲãn] versus [ˈd̪onãn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dañan" vs "donan" - which ranks higher?
"dañan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,097 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dañan" 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 #41,127 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dañan" 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 #41,127 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