Which to use
“drain” and “drink” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,222
- “drain” frequency rank
- #37,765
- “drink” frequency rank
- 70987
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | drain | drink |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Une des trois électrodes d’un transistor à effet de champ (les deux autres sont appelées source et grille). Il joue un rôle analogue à l’anode dans les tubes à vide, ou le collecteur dans les transistors bipolaires. | Cérémonie où l’on sert des boissons et souvent accompagné de zakouski. |
Where the eye mixes drain and drink
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses drain with drink
A purely visual mix-up. drain (\dʁɛ̃\) and drink (\dʁiŋk\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70987, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
drain is recorded at frequency rank #33,222, classified as anoun, pronounced \dʁɛ̃\. drink is at rank #37,765, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dʁiŋk\.
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 70987, this pair ranks #49,227 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of drain vs drink
Shared letters: dinr. Private to "drain": a. Private to "drink": k.
"drain" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "drink" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "drain" and "drink" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "drain" or "drink"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "drain" and "drink" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "drain" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drink" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #49,227 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "drain" and "drink" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "djinn vs drink". 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 #49,227 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.