Which to use
“doués” is an adjective and “Douvres” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #14,248
- “doués” frequency rank
- #37,280
- “Douvres” frequency rank
- 51528
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | doués | Douvres |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de doué. | Ville et District d’Angleterre situé dans le comté du Kent. |
Where the eye mixes doués and Douvres
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. doués runs 5 letters (CVVVC) against Douvres's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: doués vs Douvres
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: doués is \dwe\ while Douvres is \duvʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51528, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
doués is recorded at frequency rank #14,248, classified as anadj, pronounced \dwe\. Douvres is at rank #37,280, tagged as aname, pronounced \duvʁ\.
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 51528, this pair ranks #154,362 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of doués vs Douvres
Shared letters: dosu. Private to "doués": é. Private to "Douvres": erv.
"doués" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC · "Douvres" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- Douvres ← ddouvres · dourves · douvers · douvress · douvrres · douvrse · douvvres · dovures
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "doués" for "Douvres" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "doués" or "Douvres" show up more?
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 "doués" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Douvres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #154,362 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "doués" and "Douvres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "douées vs Douvres". 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 #154,362 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.