Which to use
“dou” is a noun and “douze” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,238
- “dou” frequency rank
- #2,472
- “douze” frequency rank
- 24710
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dou | douze |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Forme mutée de tou par adoucissement (t → d). | Onze plus un, adjectif numéral cardinal correspondant au nombre 12. |
Where the eye mixes dou and douze
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: dou vs douze
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dou is \ˈdu:\ while douze is \duz\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “dou” sits inside “douze”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24710, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dou is recorded at frequency rank #22,238, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈdu:\. douze is at rank #2,472, tagged as anadj, pronounced \duz\.
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 24710, this pair ranks #345,061 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dou vs douze
Shared letters: dou. Private to "dou": -. Private to "douze": ez.
"dou" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "douze" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- douze ← ddouze · douez · douzze · dozue · duoze · oduze
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "dou" and "douze" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "dou" or "douze" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "dou" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "douze" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #345,061 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dou" and "douze" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DCI vs dou". 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 #345,061 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.