Which to use
“D” is a symbol and “du” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11
- “D” frequency rank
- #17
- “du” frequency rank
- 28
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | D | du |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Symbole du préfixe déca-, signifiant 10¹, d est désormais d'usage. | Une quantité indéfinie de. Note d’usage : Utilisé avec un nom indénombrable. |
Letter map: D vs du
Shared letters muted; letters that set D and du apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.
Part-of-speech tell for D / du
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: D is asymbol and duanarticle. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “D” sits inside “du”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
D is recorded at frequency rank #11, classified as asymbol. du is at rank #17, tagged as anarticle, pronounced \dy\.
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 28, this pair ranks #440,157 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of D vs du
Shared letters: d. Private to "D": -. Private to "du": u.
"D" · 1 letters · shape C · "du" · 2 letters · shape CV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "D" for "du" ever safe?
Which is more common, "D" or "du"?
Useful next steps
You've compared "D" and "du". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "D" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "du" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #440,157 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "D" and "du" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DCI vs du". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #440,157 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.