Which to use
“draguer” and “drainer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #12,359
- “draguer” frequency rank
- #38,758
- “drainer” frequency rank
- 51117
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | draguer | drainer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Curer avec la drague ou déminer avec un bateau dragueur. | Débarrasser un terrain de l’excès d’humidité au moyen de drains ou de canaux de drainage. |
Where the eye mixes draguer and drainer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. draguer (CCVCVVC) and drainer (CCVVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses draguer with drainer
A purely visual mix-up. draguer (\dʁa.ɡe\) and drainer (\dʁe.ne\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51117, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
draguer is recorded at frequency rank #12,359, classified as averb, pronounced \dʁa.ɡe\. drainer is at rank #38,758, tagged as averb, pronounced \dʁe.ne\.
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 51117, this pair ranks #157,455 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of draguer vs drainer
Shared letters: ader. Private to "draguer": gu. Private to "drainer": in.
"draguer" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC · "drainer" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "draguer" for "drainer" ever safe?
Which is more common, "draguer" or "drainer"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "draguer" and "drainer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "draguer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drainer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #157,455 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "draguer" and "drainer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "draine vs drainer". 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 #157,455 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.