doivsdonConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#27,038
“doi” frequency rank
#1,589
“don” frequency rank
28627
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature doi don
Definition Cas sujet de deus. Action d’offrir à quelqu’un quelque chose, de lui en abandonner la propriété ou présent qu’on lui fait ainsi.

Letter map: doi vs don

Shared letters muted; letters that set doi and don apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
doi
3 ch
don

Part-of-speech tell for doi / don

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: doi is anadjective and donanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - i in “doi” becomes n in “don”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28627, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

doi is recorded at frequency rank #27,038, classified as anadj. don is at rank #1,589, 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 28627, this pair ranks #321,649 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of doi vs don

Shared letters: do. Private to "doi": i. Private to "don": n.

"doi" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "don" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "doi" and "don" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "doi" is an adjective and "don" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "doi" or "don" show up more?
"don" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,589 in our French list, against #27,038 for "doi". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "doi" and "don".

  • Full dictionary entry for "doi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "don" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #321,649 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "doi" and "don" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DCI vs doi". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #321,649 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