Which to use
“douce” is a noun and “douze” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,471
- “douce” frequency rank
- #2,472
- “douze” frequency rank
- 4943
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | douce | douze |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Terme affectueux souvent utilisé pour une personne de genre féminin. | Onze plus un, adjectif numéral cardinal correspondant au nombre 12. |
Where the eye mixes douce and douze
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: douce vs douze
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: douce is \dus\ while douze is \duz\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - c in “douce” becomes z in “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 4943, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
douce is recorded at frequency rank #2,471, classified as anoun, pronounced \dus\. 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 4943, this pair ranks #430,294 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of douce vs douze
Shared letters: deou. Private to "douce": c. Private to "douze": z.
"douce" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "douze" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "douce" for "douze" ever safe?
Which is more common, "douce" or "douze"?
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 "douce" 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 #430,294 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "douce" and "douze" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dorure vs douze". 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 #430,294 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.