danivsdansTell them apart

Quick tell: dani is a verb, dans is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dani” is a verb and “dans” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,799
“dani” frequency rank
#20
“dans” frequency rank
19819
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dani dans
Definition Forme mutée de tani par adoucissement (t → d). Préposition de lieu qui marque le rapport d’une personne ou d’une chose à ce qui la contient. Introduit un complément circonstanciel de lieu.

Where the eye mixes dani and dans

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

4 ch
dani
4 ch
dans

Why the eye confuses dani with dans

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dani is \ˈdãː.ni\ while dans is \dɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “dani” becomes s in “dans”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19819, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dani is recorded at frequency rank #19,799, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈdãː.ni\. dans is at rank #20, tagged as aprep, pronounced \dɑ̃\.

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 19819, this pair ranks #371,375 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dani vs dans

Shared letters: adn. Private to "dani": i. Private to "dans": s.

"dani" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "dans" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • daniadni · dain · danni · ddani · dnai
  • dansadns · danns · danss · dasn · ddans · dnas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dani" and "dans" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dani" is a verb and "dans" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dani" or "dans"?
"dans" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20 in our French list, against #19,799 for "dani". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "dani" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dans" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #371,375 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dani" and "dans" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dani vs denim". 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 #371,375 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