Which to use
“décès” is a noun and “dues” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,037
- “décès” frequency rank
- #8,532
- “dues” frequency rank
- 10569
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | décès | dues |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mort naturelle d’une personne. | Féminin pluriel de dû. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set décès and dues apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: décès is \de.sɛ\ while dues is \dy\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10569, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
décès is recorded at frequency rank #2,037, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.sɛ\. dues is at rank #8,532, tagged as anadj, pronounced \dy\.
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 10569, this pair ranks #412,473 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of décès vs dues
Shared letters: ds. Private to "décès": cèé. Private to "dues": eu.
"décès" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "dues" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dues ← ddues · duess · duse · udes