deovsdurTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#33,636
“deo” frequency rank
#940
“dur” frequency rank
34576
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deo dur
Definition Si. Ferme ; difficile à pénétrer ou à entamer.

Where the eye mixes deo and dur

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
deo
3 ch
dur

Why the eye confuses deo with dur

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: deo is \ˈdɛw\ while dur is \dyʁ\. 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 (adverb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34576, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

deo is recorded at frequency rank #33,636, classified as anadv, pronounced \ˈdɛw\. 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 34576, this pair ranks #282,823 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of deo vs dur

Shared letters: d. Private to "deo": eo. Private to "dur": ru.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "deo" for "dur" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "deo" is an adverb and "dur" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "deo" vs "dur" - which ranks higher?
"dur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #940 in our French list, against #33,636 for "deo". 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 "deo" 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 #282,823 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deo" and "dur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DCI vs deo". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #282,823 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