dinguevsdragueWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dingue is a adjective, drague is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dingue” is an adjective and “drague” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,452
“dingue” frequency rank
#11,951
“drague” frequency rank
15403
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dingue drague
Definition Fou, fada. Filet muni d’un racloir servant à la pêche à la traîne.

Where the eye mixes dingue and drague

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
dingue
6 ch
drague

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dingue is \dɛ̃ɡ\ while drague is \dʁaɡ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15403, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dingue is recorded at frequency rank #3,452, classified as anadj, pronounced \dɛ̃ɡ\. drague is at rank #11,951, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dʁaɡ\.

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 15403, this pair ranks #392,502 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dingue vs drague

Shared letters: degu. Private to "dingue": in. Private to "drague": ar.

"dingue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "drague" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dingueddingue · dignue · dingeu · dinggue · dinngue · dinuge · dnigue · idngue
  • draguedargue · ddrague · drageu · draggue · drauge · drgaue · drrague · rdague

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dingue" and "drague" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dingue" is an adjective and "drague" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dingue" or "drague"?
"dingue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,452 in our French list, against #11,951 for "drague". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "dingue" and "drague". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dingue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "drague" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #392,502 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dingue" and "drague" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "draghi vs drague". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list