douéevsduréeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: douée is a adjective, durée is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#15,357
“douée” frequency rank
#1,025
“durée” frequency rank
16382
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature douée durée
Definition Féminin singulier de doué. Espace de temps pendant lequel une chose dure.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set douée and durée apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
douée
5 ch
durée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: douée is \dwe\ while durée is \dy.ʁe\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16382, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

douée is recorded at frequency rank #15,357, classified as anadj, pronounced \dwe\. durée is at rank #1,025, 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 16382, this pair ranks #388,089 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of douée vs durée

Shared letters: deué. Private to "douée": o. Private to "durée": r.

"douée" · 5 letters · shape CVVVV  ·  "durée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequency comparison

douée#15,357
durée#1,025

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "douée" and "durée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "douée" is an adjective and "durée" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "douée" or "durée"?
"durée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,025 in our French list, against #15,357 for "douée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering douée vs durée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “douée”; for a noun, it's “durée”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “douée” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list