duranvsdurchConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#49,596
“duran” frequency rank
#67
“durch” frequency rank
49663
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature duran durch
Definition 3. Person Plural Indikativ Futur Aktiv des Verbs dur in etwas hinein und auf der anderen Seite wieder heraus (wobei oft der Teil dazwischen das Wichtige ist)

Where the eye mixes duran and durch

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

5 ch
duran
5 ch
durch

Visual trap between duran and durch

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: duran is [duˈɾan] while durch is [dʊʁç]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49663, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

duran is recorded at frequency rank #49,596, classified as averb, pronounced [duˈɾan]. durch is at rank #67, tagged as aprep, pronounced [dʊʁç].

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 49663, this pair ranks #1,202,936 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of duran vs durch

Shared letters: dru. Private to "duran": an. Private to "durch": ch.

"duran" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "durch" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • durandduran · druan · duarn · durann · durna · durran · udran
  • durchddurch · druch · ducrh · durcch · durchh · durhc · durrch · udrch

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "duran" for "durch" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "duran" is a verb and "durch" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "duran" vs "durch" - which ranks higher?
"durch" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #67 in our German list, against #49,596 for "duran". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "duran" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "durch" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,202,936 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "duran" and "durch" 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 #1,202,936 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