douéevsdukeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: douée is a adjective, duke is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“douée” is an adjective and “duke” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,357
“douée” frequency rank
#15,358
“duke” frequency rank
30715
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature douée duke
Definition Féminin singulier de doué. Duc.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set douée and duke apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
douée
4 ch
duke

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: douée is \dwe\ while duke is \djuːk\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30715, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

douée is recorded at frequency rank #15,357, classified as anadj, pronounced \dwe\. duke is at rank #15,358, tagged as anoun, pronounced \djuːk\.

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 30715, this pair ranks #308,422 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of douée vs duke

Shared letters: deu. Private to "douée": . Private to "duke": k.

"douée" · 5 letters · shape CVVVV  ·  "duke" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dukedduke · dkue · duek · dukke · udke

Frequency comparison

douée#15,357
duke#15,358

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "douée" and "duke" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "douée" is an adjective and "duke" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "douée" or "duke"?
"douée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,357 in our French list, against #15,358 for "duke". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering douée vs duke

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “douée”; for a noun, it's “duke”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “douée” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list