daguevsDateConfusable pair

Which to use

“dague” and “Date” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#31,913
“dague” frequency rank
#580
“Date” frequency rank
32493
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dague Date
Definition Espèce de long poignard. Rendez-vous entre deux amoureux.

Where the eye mixes dague and Date

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

5 ch
dague
4 ch
Date

Visual trap between dague and Date

A purely visual mix-up. dague (\daɡ\) and Date (\dɛɪ̯t\) 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 32493, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dague is recorded at frequency rank #31,913, classified as anoun, pronounced \daɡ\. Date is at rank #580, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɛɪ̯t\.

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 32493, this pair ranks #296,898 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dague vs Date

Shared letters: ade. Private to "dague": gu. Private to "Date": t.

"dague" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "Date" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dagueadgue · dageu · daggue · dauge · ddague · dgaue
  • Dateadte · daet · datte · ddate · dtae

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dague" and "Date" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\daɡ\ versus \dɛɪ̯t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "dague" or "Date" show up more?
"Date" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #580 in our French list, against #31,913 for "dague". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dague" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Date" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #296,898 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dague" and "Date" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dague vs dragues". 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 #296,898 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list