donnéevsdonniezWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: donnée is a noun, donniez is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“donnée” is a noun and “donniez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,514
“donnée” frequency rank
#49,603
“donniez” frequency rank
52117
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature donnée donniez
Definition Information sur un sujet particulier, qui, avec d’autres données, sert de base à la réflexion ou l'étude de ce sujet. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de donner.

Where the eye mixes donnée and donniez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. donnée runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against donniez's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
donnée
7 ch
donniez

Why the eye confuses donnée with donniez

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: donnée is \dɔ.ne\ while donniez is \dɔ.nje\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52117, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

donnée is recorded at frequency rank #2,514, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɔ.ne\. donniez is at rank #49,603, tagged as averb, pronounced \dɔ.nje\.

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 52117, this pair ranks #150,050 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of donnée vs donniez

Shared letters: deno. Private to "donnée": é. Private to "donniez": iz.

"donnée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "donniez" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • donniezddonniez · dnoniez · doniez · doninez · donneiz · donniezz · donnize · odnniez

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "donnée" and "donniez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "donnée" is a noun and "donniez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "donnée" or "donniez"?
"donnée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,514 in our French list, against #49,603 for "donniez". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "donnée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "donniez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #150,050 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "donnée" and "donniez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Donnie vs donniez". 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 #150,050 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