Which to use
“dires” and “durées” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,949
- “dires” frequency rank
- #20,424
- “durées” frequency rank
- 32373
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dires | durées |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de dire. | Pluriel de durée. |
Where the eye mixes dires and durées
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. dires runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against durées's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses dires with durées
A purely visual mix-up. dires (\diʁ\) and durées (\dy.ʁe\) 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 32373, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dires is recorded at frequency rank #11,949, classified as anoun, pronounced \diʁ\. durées is at rank #20,424, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dy.ʁe\.
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 32373, this pair ranks #297,725 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dires vs durées
Shared letters: ders. Private to "dires": i. Private to "durées": ué.
"dires" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "durées" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dires ← ddires · diers · diress · dirres · dirse · dries · idres
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dires" and "durées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "dires" vs "durées" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "dires" and "durées" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dires" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "durées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #297,725 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dires" and "durées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "diurnes vs durées". 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 #297,725 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.