donevsdreWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: done is a noun, dre is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“done” is a noun and “dre” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#20,986
“done” frequency rank
#17,679
“dre” frequency rank
38665
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature done dre
Definition Demoiselle, jeune dame, parfois opposé à dame. Par.

Letter map: done vs dre

Shared letters muted; letters that set done and dre apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
done
3 ch
dre

Role in the sentence - done and dre

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: done is anoun and dreapreposition. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38665, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

done is recorded at frequency rank #20,986, classified as anoun. dre is at rank #17,679, tagged as aprep, pronounced \ˈdreː\.

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 38665, this pair ranks #253,670 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of done vs dre

Shared letters: de. Private to "done": no. Private to "dre": r.

"done" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "dre" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • doneddone · dnoe · doen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "done" for "dre" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "done" is a noun and "dre" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "done" vs "dre" - which ranks higher?
"dre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,679 in our French list, against #20,986 for "done". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "done" and "dre".

  • Full dictionary entry for "done" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #253,670 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "done" and "dre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "domi vs done". 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 #253,670 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