donnevsdonneurWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#326
“donne” frequency rank
#14,247
“donneur” frequency rank
14573
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature donne donneur
Definition Action de donner, de distribuer les cartes, dans un jeu de cartes. Celui qui donne.

Where the eye mixes donne and donneur

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. donne runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against donneur's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
donne
7 ch
donneur

Why the eye confuses donne with donneur

A purely visual mix-up. donne (\dɔn\) and donneur (\dɔ.nœʁ\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “donne” sits inside “donneur”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14573, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

donne is recorded at frequency rank #326, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɔn\. donneur is at rank #14,247, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɔ.nœʁ\.

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 14573, this pair ranks #396,087 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of donne vs donneur

Shared letters: deno. Private to "donne": -. Private to "donneur": ru.

"donne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "donneur" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • donne ← ddonne · dnone · donen · odnne
  • donneur ← ddonneur · dnoneur · donenur · doneur · donneru · donneurr · donnuer · odnneur

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "donne" and "donneur" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\dɔn\ versus \dɔ.nœʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "donne" or "donneur"?
"donne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #326 in our French list, against #14,247 for "donneur". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "donne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "donneur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #396,087 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "donne" and "donneur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "donneur vs dormeur". 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 #396,087 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