docuvsdogWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#28,920
“docu” frequency rank
#11,950
“dog” frequency rank
40870
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature docu dog
Definition Documentaire. Chien (animal), pitou, animal de l'espèce Canis familiaris ou Canis lupus familiaris qui a été domestiqué il y a plusieurs milliers d'années et d’apparence variable du fait de la sélection humaine.

Where the eye mixes docu and dog

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
docu
3 ch
dog

Visual trap between docu and dog

A purely visual mix-up. docu (\dɔ.ky\) and dog (\ˈdɔɡ\) 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 40870, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

docu is recorded at frequency rank #28,920, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɔ.ky\. dog is at rank #11,950, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈdɔɡ\.

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 40870, this pair ranks #237,294 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of docu vs dog

Shared letters: do. Private to "docu": cu. Private to "dog": g.

"docu" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "dog" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • docudcou · ddocu · doccu · douc · odcu

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "docu" and "dog" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\dɔ.ky\ versus \ˈdɔɡ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "docu" or "dog" show up more?
"dog" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,950 in our French list, against #28,920 for "docu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "docu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dog" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #237,294 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "docu" and "dog" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DCI vs docu". 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 #237,294 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