donnezvsdormezWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#4,066
“donnez” frequency rank
#17,678
“dormez” frequency rank
21744
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature donnez dormez
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de donner. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de dormir.

Where the eye mixes donnez and dormez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. donnez and dormez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
donnez
6 ch
dormez

Visual trap between donnez and dormez

A purely visual mix-up. donnez (\dɔ.ne\) and dormez (\dɔʁ.me\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21744, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

donnez is recorded at frequency rank #4,066, classified as averb, pronounced \dɔ.ne\. dormez is at rank #17,678, tagged as averb, pronounced \dɔʁ.me\.

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 21744, this pair ranks #361,640 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of donnez vs dormez

Shared letters: deoz. Private to "donnez": n. Private to "dormez": mr.

"donnez" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "dormez" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • donnezddonnez · dnonez · donenz · donez · donnezz · donnze · odnnez
  • dormezddormez · domrez · doremz · dormezz · dormmez · dormze · dorrmez · dromez

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "donnez" and "dormez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\dɔ.ne\ versus \dɔʁ.me\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "donnez" or "dormez"?
"donnez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,066 in our French list, against #17,678 for "dormez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "donnez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dormez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #361,640 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "donnez" and "dormez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "derme vs dormez". 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 #361,640 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