donnervsdoterWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#327
“donner” frequency rank
#14,455
“doter” frequency rank
14782
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature donner doter
Definition Faire un don ; transférer, sans rétribution, la propriété d’une chose que l’on possède ou dont on jouit, à une autre personne. Pourvoir d’une dot les jeunes filles qui se marient ou entrent en religion.

Where the eye mixes donner and doter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
donner
5 ch
doter

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. donner (\dɔ.ne\) and doter (\dɔ.te\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14782, 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\. doter is at rank #14,455, tagged as averb, pronounced \dɔ.te\.

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 14782, this pair ranks #395,258 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of donner vs doter

Shared letters: deor. Private to "donner": n. Private to "doter": t.

"donner" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "doter" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • donnerddonner · dnoner · donenr · doner · donnerr · donnre · odnner
  • doterddoter · doetr · doterr · dotre · dotter · dtoer · odter

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "donner" and "doter" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\dɔ.ne\ versus \dɔ.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "donner" or "doter"?
"donner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #327 in our French list, against #14,455 for "doter". 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