Which to use
“dan” and “drain” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,065
- “dan” frequency rank
- #33,222
- “drain” frequency rank
- 37287
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dan | drain |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Grade, degré de qualification dans la pratique d’un art martial, qui se traduit en général par le port d’une ceinture noire (contrairement aux grades kyu). | Une des trois électrodes d’un transistor à effet de champ (les deux autres sont appelées source et grille). Il joue un rôle analogue à l’anode dans les tubes à vide, ou le collecteur dans les transistors bipolaires. |
Where the eye mixes dan and drain
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses dan with drain
A purely visual mix-up. dan (\dan\) and drain (\dʁɛ̃\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37287, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dan is recorded at frequency rank #4,065, classified as anoun, pronounced \dan\. drain is at rank #33,222, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dʁɛ̃\.
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 37287, this pair ranks #263,528 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dan vs drain
Shared letters: adn. Private to "dan": -. Private to "drain": ir.
"dan" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "drain" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- drain ← darin · ddrain · drainn · drani · drian · drrain
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dan" for "drain" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "dan" or "drain" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "dan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drain" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #263,528 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dan" and "drain" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "drain vs dray". 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 #263,528 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.