doisvsdooWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#707
“dois” frequency rank
#24,549
“doo” frequency rank
25256
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dois doo
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de devoir. Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de doar.

Where the eye mixes dois and doo

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

4 ch
dois
3 ch
doo

Look-alike desk: dois vs doo

A purely visual mix-up. dois (\dwa\) and doo (\dˈow\) 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 25256, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dois is recorded at frequency rank #707, classified as averb, pronounced \dwa\. doo is at rank #24,549, tagged as averb, pronounced \dˈow\.

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 25256, this pair ranks #341,886 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dois vs doo

Shared letters: do. Private to "dois": is. Private to "doo": -.

"dois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "doo" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • doisddois · doiss · dosi · odis

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dois" and "doo" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\dwa\ versus \dˈow\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dois" or "doo"?
"dois" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #707 in our French list, against #24,549 for "doo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "dois" and "doo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dois" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "doo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #341,886 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dois" and "doo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DCI vs doo". 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 #341,886 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