drainevsdrinkWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“draine” and “drink” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#44,427
“draine” frequency rank
#37,765
“drink” frequency rank
82192
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature draine drink
Definition Grive draine. Cérémonie où l’on sert des boissons et souvent accompagné de zakouski.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set draine and drink apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
draine
5 ch
drink

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. draine (\dʁɛn\) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82192, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

draine is recorded at frequency rank #44,427, classified as anoun, pronounced \dʁɛn\. 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 82192, this pair ranks #17,208 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of draine vs drink

Shared letters: dinr. Private to "draine": ae. Private to "drink": k.

"draine" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV  ·  "drink" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • drainedarine · ddraine · draien · drainne · dranie · driane · drraine · rdaine
  • drinkddrink · dirnk · drikn · drinkk · drinnk · drnik · drrink · rdink

Frequency comparison

draine#44,427
drink#37,765

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "draine" and "drink" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\dʁɛn\ versus \dʁiŋk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "draine" or "drink"?
"drink" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,765 in our French list, against #44,427 for "draine". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering draine vs drink

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “draine” 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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list