Which to use
“donkey” is a noun and “donner” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,114
- “donkey” frequency rank
- #327
- “donner” frequency rank
- 46441
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | donkey | donner |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Âne. | Faire un don ; transférer, sans rétribution, la propriété d’une chose que l’on possède ou dont on jouit, à une autre personne. |
Where the eye mixes donkey and donner
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses donkey with donner
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: donkey is \dɒŋki\ while donner is \dɔ.ne\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46441, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
donkey is recorded at frequency rank #46,114, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɒŋki\. donner is at rank #327, tagged as averb, pronounced \dɔ.ne\.
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 46441, this pair ranks #194,911 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of donkey vs donner
Shared letters: deno. Private to "donkey": ky. Private to "donner": r.
"donkey" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "donner" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "donkey" and "donner" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "donkey" vs "donner" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "donkey" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "donner" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #194,911 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "donkey" and "donner" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "docker vs donkey". 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 #194,911 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.