déconnervsdonnerTell them apart

Which to use

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

#11,568
“déconner” frequency rank
#327
“donner” frequency rank
11895
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature déconner donner
Definition Se retirer du con (du sexe) d’une femme, une fois l’acte sexuel accompli. Faire un don ; transférer, sans rétribution, la propriété d’une chose que l’on possède ou dont on jouit, à une autre personne.

Where the eye mixes déconner and donner

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. déconner runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVC) against donner's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
déconner
6 ch
donner

Look-alike desk: déconner vs donner

A purely visual mix-up. déconner (\de.kɔ.ne\) and donner (\dɔ.ne\) 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 11895, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

déconner is recorded at frequency rank #11,568, classified as averb, pronounced \de.kɔ.ne\. donner is at rank #327, tagged as averb, pronounced \dɔ.ne\.

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 11895, this pair ranks #407,383 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of déconner vs donner

Shared letters: denor. Private to "déconner": cé. Private to "donner": -.

"déconner" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "donner" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • donner ← ddonner · dnoner · donenr · doner · donnerr · donnre · odnner

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "déconner" and "donner" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\de.kɔ.ne\ versus \dɔ.ne\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "déconner" or "donner" show up more?
"donner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #327 in our French list, against #11,568 for "déconner". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "déconner" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "donner" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #407,383 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "déconner" and "donner" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déconner vs déconnes". 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 #407,383 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