donnervsdonneurWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#327
“donner” frequency rank
#14,247
“donneur” frequency rank
14574
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature donner donneur
Definition Faire un don ; transférer, sans rétribution, la propriété d’une chose que l’on possède ou dont on jouit, à une autre personne. Celui qui donne.

Where the eye mixes donner and donneur

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
donner
7 ch
donneur

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: donner is \dɔ.ne\ while donneur is \dɔ.nœʁ\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14574, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

donner is recorded at frequency rank #327, classified as averb, pronounced \dɔ.ne\. 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 14574, this pair ranks #396,081 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of donner vs donneur

Shared letters: denor. Private to "donner": -. Private to "donneur": u.

"donner" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "donneur" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • donnerddonner · dnoner · donenr · doner · donnerr · donnre · odnner
  • donneurddonneur · dnoneur · donenur · doneur · donneru · donneurr · donnuer · odnneur

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "donner" and "donneur" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "donner" is a verb and "donneur" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "donner" or "donneur"?
"donner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #327 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list