damagevsDammeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#46,096
“damage” frequency rank
#36,346
“Damme” frequency rank
82442
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature damage Damme
Definition Action de damer. Variante du datif singulier de Damm.

Where the eye mixes damage and Damme

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. damage runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against Damme's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
damage
5 ch
Damme

Look-alike desk: damage vs Damme

A purely visual mix-up. damage (\da.maʒ\) and Damme (\ˈdamə\) 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 82442, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

damage is recorded at frequency rank #46,096, classified as anoun, pronounced \da.maʒ\. Damme is at rank #36,346, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈdamə\.

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 82442, this pair ranks #16,740 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of damage vs Damme

Shared letters: adem. Private to "damage": g. Private to "Damme": -.

"damage" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "Damme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • damage ← admage · daamge · damaeg · damagge · damgae · dammage · ddamage · dmaage
  • Damme ← admme · damem · ddamme · dmame

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "damage" for "Damme" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\da.maʒ\ versus \ˈdamə\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "damage" or "Damme"?
"Damme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,346 in our French list, against #46,096 for "damage". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "damage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Damme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,740 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "damage" and "Damme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dallage vs damage". 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 #16,740 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