dotéesvsdouéesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#19,514
“dotées” frequency rank
#46,709
“douées” frequency rank
66223
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dotées douées
Definition Féminin pluriel de doté. Féminin pluriel de doué.

Where the eye mixes dotées and douées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. dotées (CVCVVC) and douées (CVVVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
dotées
6 ch
douées

Visual trap between dotées and douées

A purely visual mix-up. dotées (\dɔ.te\) 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 differ by a single letter - t in “dotées” becomes u in “douées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66223, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dotées is recorded at frequency rank #19,514, classified as anadj, pronounced \dɔ.te\. 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 66223, this pair ranks #68,734 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dotées vs douées

Shared letters: deosé. Private to "dotées": t. Private to "douées": u.

"dotées" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "douées" · 6 letters · shape CVVVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dotées" for "douées" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\dɔ.te\ versus \dwe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dotées" vs "douées" - which ranks higher?
"dotées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,514 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.

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 "dotées" 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 #68,734 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dotées" and "douées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Dombes vs douées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #68,734 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