der vs do, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#3,909
“der” frequency rank: #2,819
“do” frequency rank: 6728
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	der	do
Definition	Dernier, dernière ou dernière fois.	Première note de la gamme.

Where the eye mixes der and do

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

der

2 ch

Look-alike desk: der vs do

A purely visual mix-up. der (\dɛʁ\) and do (\do\) 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 6728, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

der is recorded at frequency rank #3,909, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɛʁ\. do is at rank #2,819, tagged as anoun, pronounced \do\.

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 6728, this pair ranks #425,407 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of der vs do

Shared letters: d. Private to "der": er. Private to "do": o.

"der" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "do" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "der" and "do" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (\dɛʁ\ versus \do\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Frequency check: "der" vs "do" - which ranks higher?

"do" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,819 in our French list, against #3,909 for "der". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "der" and "do" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "der" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "do" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #425,407 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"der" and "do" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DCI vs der". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #425,407 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.