DurvsduranTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#10,455
“Dur” frequency rank
#49,596
“duran” frequency rank
60051
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Dur duran
Definition Tongeschlecht einer Klangverbindung, deren Charakteristikum eine große Terz im Verhältnis zum Grundton ist 3. Person Plural Indikativ Futur Aktiv des Verbs dur

Where the eye mixes Dur and duran

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
Dur
5 ch
duran

Visual trap between Dur and duran

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Dur is [duːɐ̯] while duran is [duˈɾan]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Dur” sits inside “duran”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60051, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Dur is recorded at frequency rank #10,455, classified as anoun, pronounced [duːɐ̯]. duran is at rank #49,596, tagged as averb, pronounced [duˈɾan].

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 60051, this pair ranks #801,459 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Dur vs duran

Shared letters: dru. Private to "Dur": -. Private to "duran": an.

"Dur" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "duran" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • durandduran · druan · duarn · durann · durna · durran · udran

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Dur" and "duran" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Dur" is a noun and "duran" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Dur" or "duran" show up more?
"Dur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,455 in our German list, against #49,596 for "duran". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Dur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "duran" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #801,459 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Dur" and "duran" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Dumas vs duran". 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 #801,459 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