demainvsdrainConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#601
“demain” frequency rank
#33,222
“drain” frequency rank
33823
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature demain drain
Definition Les temps à venir. 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 demain and drain

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

6 ch
demain
5 ch
drain

Look-alike desk: demain vs drain

A purely visual mix-up. demain (\də.mɛ̃\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33823, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

demain is recorded at frequency rank #601, classified as anoun, pronounced \də.mɛ̃\. 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 33823, this pair ranks #288,044 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of demain vs drain

Shared letters: adin. Private to "demain": em. Private to "drain": r.

"demain" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "drain" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • demain ← ddemain · deamin · demainn · demani · demian · demmain · dmeain · edmain
  • drain ← darin · ddrain · drainn · drani · drian · drrain

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "demain" and "drain" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\də.mɛ̃\ versus \dʁɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "demain" or "drain"?
"demain" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #601 in our French list, against #33,222 for "drain". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "demain" 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 #288,044 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "demain" 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 #288,044 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