Which to use
“does” and “douves” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,566
- “does” frequency rank
- #42,833
- “douves” frequency rank
- 73399
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | does | douves |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fait d’avoir un rapport sexuel ; coït. | Pluriel de douve. |
Where the eye mixes does and douves
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses does with douves
A purely visual mix-up. does (\dœz\) and douves (\duv\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73399, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
does is recorded at frequency rank #30,566, classified as anoun, pronounced \dœz\. douves is at rank #42,833, tagged as anoun, pronounced \duv\.
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 73399, this pair ranks #40,601 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of does vs douves
Shared letters: deos. Private to "does": -. Private to "douves": uv.
"does" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "douves" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "does" for "douves" ever safe?
Frequency check: "does" vs "douves" - which ranks higher?
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 "does" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "douves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #40,601 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "does" and "douves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "douées vs douves". 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 #40,601 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.