Which to use
“dou” and “drug” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,238
- “dou” frequency rank
- #29,732
- “drug” frequency rank
- 51970
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dou | drug |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Forme mutée de tou par adoucissement (t → d). | Médicament, drogue. |
Where the eye mixes dou and drug
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dou runs 3 letters (CVV) against drug's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: dou vs drug
A purely visual mix-up. dou (\ˈdu:\) and drug (\dɹʌɡ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51970, 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:\. drug is at rank #29,732, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɹʌɡ\.
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 51970, this pair ranks #151,096 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dou vs drug
Shared letters: du. Private to "dou": o. Private to "drug": gr.
"dou" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "drug" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- drug ← ddrug · drgu · drrug · drugg · durg · rdug
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dou" and "drug" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "dou" vs "drug" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
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 "drug" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #151,096 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dou" and "drug" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dray vs drug". 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 #151,096 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.