darevsDurTell them apart

Quick tell: dare is a verb, Dur is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dare” is a verb and “Dur” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,517
“dare” frequency rank
#10,455
“Dur” frequency rank
54972
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dare Dur
Definition es wagen, zu (+Infinitiv); den Mut haben, zu (+Infinitiv) Tongeschlecht einer Klangverbindung, deren Charakteristikum eine große Terz im Verhältnis zum Grundton ist

Where the eye mixes dare and Dur

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
dare
3 ch
Dur

Why the eye confuses dare with Dur

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dare is [deə(ɹ)] while Dur is [duːɐ̯]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54972, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dare is recorded at frequency rank #44,517, classified as averb, pronounced [deə(ɹ)]. Dur is at rank #10,455, tagged as anoun, pronounced [duːɐ̯].

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 54972, this pair ranks #997,697 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dare vs Dur

Shared letters: dr. Private to "dare": ae. Private to "Dur": u.

"dare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Dur" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • daredarre · ddare · drae

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dare" and "Dur" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dare" is a verb and "Dur" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dare" or "Dur"?
"Dur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,455 in our German list, against #44,517 for "dare". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "dare" and "Dur" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dare" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Dur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #997,697 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dare" and "Dur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dare vs dörr". 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 #997,697 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list