deivsdurConfusable pair

Quick tell: dei is a noun, dur is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dei” is a noun and “dur” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,767
“dei” frequency rank
#940
“dur” frequency rank
14707
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dei dur
Definition Appel, convocation. Ferme ; difficile à pénétrer ou à entamer.

Letter map: dei vs dur

Shared letters muted; letters that set dei and dur apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
dei
3 ch
dur

Part-of-speech tell for dei / dur

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dei is anoun and duranadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14707, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dei is recorded at frequency rank #13,767, classified as anoun. dur is at rank #940, tagged as anadj, pronounced \dyʁ\.

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 14707, this pair ranks #395,535 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dei vs dur

Shared letters: d. Private to "dei": ei. Private to "dur": ru.

"dei" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "dur" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dei" for "dur" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dei" is a noun and "dur" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dei" vs "dur" - which ranks higher?
"dur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #940 in our French list, against #13,767 for "dei". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "dei" vs "dur" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dei" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #395,535 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dei" and "dur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dei vs denim". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #395,535 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list