doesvsdoteTell them apart

Quick tell: does is a verb, dote is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“does” is a verb and “dote” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,750
“does” frequency rank
#19,383
“dote” frequency rank
51133
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature does dote
Definition Tercera persona del singular (he, she, it) del presente simple del verbo (to) do. Caudal (bienes) que aporta la mujer cuando se casa, o que adquiere después de casada.

Where the eye mixes does and dote

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
does
4 ch
dote

Look-alike desk: does vs dote

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: does is /ˈdʌz/ while dote is [ˈd̪ot̪e]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51133, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

does is recorded at frequency rank #31,750, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈdʌz/. dote is at rank #19,383, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈd̪ot̪e].

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 51133, this pair ranks #99,510 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of does vs dote

Shared letters: deo. Private to "does": s. Private to "dote": t.

"does" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "dote" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • doesddoes · deos · doess · odes
  • doteddote · doet · dotte · dtoe · odte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "does" for "dote" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "does" is a verb and "dote" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "does" or "dote" show up more?
"dote" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,383 in our Spanish list, against #31,750 for "does". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "does" and "dote" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "does" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dote" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #99,510 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "does" and "dote" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "does 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 #99,510 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