drug vs du, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“drug” is a noun and “du” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,732
“drug” frequency rank: #17
“du” frequency rank: 29749
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	drug	du
Definition	Médicament, drogue.	Une quantité indéfinie de. Note d’usage : Utilisé avec un nom indénombrable.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set drug and du apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

drug

2 ch

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: drug is \dɹʌɡ\ while du is \dy\. 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 (noun vs article), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29749, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

drug is recorded at frequency rank #29,732, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɹʌɡ\. du is at rank #17, tagged as anarticle, pronounced \dy\.

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 29749, this pair ranks #314,736 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of drug vs du

Shared letters: du. Private to "drug": gr. Private to "du": -.

"drug" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "du" · 2 letters · shape CV

Known mistypes of this pair

drug ← ddrug · drgu · drrug · drugg · durg · rdug

Frequency comparison

drug#29,732

du#17

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "drug" and "du" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "drug" is a noun and "du" an article, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "drug" or "du"?

"du" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17 in our French list, against #29,732 for "drug". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering drug vs du

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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