dogsvsdouTell them apart

Which to use

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

#17,116
“dogs” frequency rank
#22,238
“dou” frequency rank
39354
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dogs dou
Definition Pluriel de dog. Forme mutée de tou par adoucissement (t → d).

Where the eye mixes dogs and dou

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

4 ch
dogs
3 ch
dou

Look-alike desk: dogs vs dou

A purely visual mix-up. dogs (\ˈdɔɡz\) and dou (\ˈdu:\) 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 39354, 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\. dou is at rank #22,238, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈdu:\.

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 39354, this pair ranks #248,612 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dogs vs dou

Shared letters: do. Private to "dogs": gs. Private to "dou": u.

"dogs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "dou" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dogsddogs · dgos · doggs · dogss · dosg · odgs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dogs" and "dou" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ˈdɔɡz\ versus \ˈdu:\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dogs" vs "dou" - which ranks higher?
"dogs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,116 in our French list, against #22,238 for "dou". 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 "dogs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #248,612 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dogs" and "dou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DCI vs dou". 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 #248,612 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