dojovsdouWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#34,986
“dojo” frequency rank
#22,238
“dou” frequency rank
57224
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dojo dou
Definition Endroit où le sensei entraîne ses étudiants. Forme mutée de tou par adoucissement (t → d).

Where the eye mixes dojo and dou

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

4 ch
dojo
3 ch
dou

Visual trap between dojo and dou

A purely visual mix-up. dojo (\do.ʒo\) 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 57224, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dojo is recorded at frequency rank #34,986, classified as anoun, pronounced \do.ʒo\. 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 57224, this pair ranks #116,306 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dojo vs dou

Shared letters: do. Private to "dojo": j. Private to "dou": u.

"dojo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "dou" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dojoddojo · djoo · dojjo · dooj · odjo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dojo" for "dou" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\do.ʒo\ versus \ˈdu:\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dojo" vs "dou" - which ranks higher?
"dou" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,238 in our French list, against #34,986 for "dojo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dojo" 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 #116,306 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dojo" and "dou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dojo 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 #116,306 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