digvsdigueConfusable pair

Quick tell: dig is a onomatopoeia, digue is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dig” is an onomatopoeia and “digue” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,253
“dig” frequency rank
#18,169
“digue” frequency rank
57422
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dig digue
Definition Son métallique. Levée de terre, de pierres, de bois, etc. pour contenir des eaux d’un fleuve, d’un torrent, d’un lac, et contrer les flots de la mer.

Letter map: dig vs digue

Shared letters muted; letters that set dig and digue apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. dig runs 3 letters (CVC) against digue's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
dig
5 ch
digue

Grammar separator: dig vs digue

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dig is anonomatopoeia and digueanoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “dig” sits inside “digue”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57422, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dig is recorded at frequency rank #39,253, classified as anonomatopoeia. digue is at rank #18,169, tagged as anoun, pronounced \diɡ\.

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 57422, this pair ranks #115,141 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dig vs digue

Shared letters: dgi. Private to "dig": -. Private to "digue": eu.

"dig" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "digue" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • digue ← ddigue · dgiue · digeu · diggue · diuge · idgue

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dig" and "digue" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dig" is an onomatopoeia and "digue" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dig" or "digue"?
"digue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,169 in our French list, against #39,253 for "dig". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "dig" and "digue". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dig" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "digue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #115,141 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dig" and "digue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DCI vs dig". 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 #115,141 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