donnésvsdouéesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,288
“donnés” frequency rank
#46,709
“douées” frequency rank
52997
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature donnés douées
Definition Masculin pluriel de donné. Féminin pluriel de doué.

Where the eye mixes donnés and douées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. donnés (CVCCVC) and douées (CVVVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
donnés
6 ch
douées

Visual trap between donnés and douées

A purely visual mix-up. donnés (\dɔ.ne\) and douées (\dwe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52997, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

donnés is recorded at frequency rank #6,288, classified as anadj, pronounced \dɔ.ne\. douées is at rank #46,709, tagged as anadj, pronounced \dwe\.

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 52997, this pair ranks #143,795 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of donnés vs douées

Shared letters: dosé. Private to "donnés": n. Private to "douées": eu.

"donnés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "douées" · 6 letters · shape CVVVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "donnés" for "douées" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\dɔ.ne\ versus \dwe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "donnés" or "douées"?
"donnés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,288 in our French list, against #46,709 for "douées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "donnés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "douées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #143,795 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "donnés" and "douées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Dombes vs douées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #143,795 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