duranvsdürfenTell them apart

Which to use

“duran” and “dürfen” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#49,596
“duran” frequency rank
#517
“dürfen” frequency rank
50113
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature duran dürfen
Definition 3. Person Plural Indikativ Futur Aktiv des Verbs dur die Erlaubnis haben, etwas zu tun

Where the eye mixes duran and dürfen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. duran runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against dürfen's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
duran
6 ch
dürfen

Visual trap between duran and dürfen

A purely visual mix-up. duran ([duˈɾan]) and dürfen ([ˈdʏʁfn̩]) 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 50113, 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]. dürfen is at rank #517, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈdʏʁfn̩].

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 50113, this pair ranks #1,186,158 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of duran vs dürfen

Shared letters: dnr. Private to "duran": au. Private to "dürfen": efü.

"duran" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "dürfen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • duran ← dduran · druan · duarn · durann · durna · durran · udran

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "duran" and "dürfen" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([duˈɾan] versus [ˈdʏʁfn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "duran" or "dürfen"?
"dürfen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #517 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

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "duran" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dürfen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,186,158 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "duran" and "dürfen" 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 #1,186,158 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