dengvsdoneTell them apart

Quick tell: deng is a pronoun, done is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“deng” is a pronoun and “done” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,277
“deng” frequency rank
#20,986
“done” frequency rank
63263
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deng done
Definition Ta, la tienne. Demoiselle, jeune dame, parfois opposé à dame.

Letter map: deng vs done

Shared letters muted; letters that set deng and done apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. deng (CVCC) and done (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
deng
4 ch
done

Role in the sentence - deng and done

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: deng is apronoun and doneanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63263, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

deng is recorded at frequency rank #42,277, classified as apron, pronounced \dˈeŋ\. done is at rank #20,986, tagged as anoun.

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 63263, this pair ranks #82,872 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of deng vs done

Shared letters: den. Private to "deng": g. Private to "done": o.

"deng" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "done" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deng ← ddeng · degn · dengg · denng · dneg · edng
  • done ← ddone · dnoe · doen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "deng" and "done" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "deng" is a pronoun and "done" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "deng" or "done" show up more?
"done" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,986 in our French list, against #42,277 for "deng". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "deng" vs "done" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "deng" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "done" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #82,872 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deng" and "done" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deng 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 #82,872 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