Which to use
“der” is an intj and “dour” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,491
- “der” frequency rank
- #49,880
- “dour” frequency rank
- 55371
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | der | dour |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Disdainful indication that something is obvious. | Stern, harsh and forbidding. |
Where the eye mixes der and dour
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: der is /dɜː/ while dour is /ˈdʊə/. 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 (intj vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55371, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
der is recorded at frequency rank #5,491, classified as anintj, pronounced /dɜː/. dour is at rank #49,880, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈdʊə/.
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 55371, this pair ranks #134,106 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of der vs dour
Shared letters: dr. Private to "der": e. Private to "dour": ou.
"der" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "dour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dour ← ddour · doru · dourr · duor · odur