Which to use
“dogs” and “dons” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,116
- “dogs” frequency rank
- #4,067
- “dons” frequency rank
- 21183
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dogs | dons |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de dog. | Pluriel de don. |
Where the eye mixes dogs and dons
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses dogs with dons
A purely visual mix-up. dogs (\ˈdɔɡz\) and dons (\dɔ̃\) 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 a single letter - g in “dogs” becomes n in “dons”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21183, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dogs is recorded at frequency rank #17,116, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈdɔɡz\. dons is at rank #4,067, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɔ̃\.
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 21183, this pair ranks #364,459 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dogs vs dons
Shared letters: dos. Private to "dogs": g. Private to "dons": n.
"dogs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "dons" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dogs" and "dons" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "dogs" or "dons"?
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 "dogs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #364,459 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dogs" and "dons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dogs vs domi". 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 #364,459 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.