dontvsdorWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: dont is a pronoun, dor is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dont” is a pronoun and “dor” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#119
“dont” frequency rank
#26,331
“dor” frequency rank
26450
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dont dor
Definition De qui ; de quoi ; duquel ; de laquelle ; desquels , desquelles. Sentiment complexe qui mêle la nostalgie, la mélancolie, la douleur et la joie.

Where the eye mixes dont and dor

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
dont
3 ch
dor

Why the eye confuses dont with dor

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dont is \dɔ̃\ while dor is \dɔʁ\. 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 (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26450, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dont is recorded at frequency rank #119, classified as apron, pronounced \dɔ̃\. dor is at rank #26,331, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɔʁ\.

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 26450, this pair ranks #334,925 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dont vs dor

Shared letters: do. Private to "dont": nt. Private to "dor": r.

"dont" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "dor" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dontddont · dnot · donnt · dontt · dotn · odnt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dont" and "dor" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dont" is a pronoun and "dor" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dont" vs "dor" - which ranks higher?
"dont" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #119 in our French list, against #26,331 for "dor". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dont" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dor" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #334,925 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dont" and "dor" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DCI vs dor". 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 #334,925 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