Which to use
“douées” and “dues” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,709
- “douées” frequency rank
- #8,532
- “dues” frequency rank
- 55241
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | douées | dues |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin pluriel de doué. | Féminin pluriel de dû. |
Where the eye mixes douées and dues
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. douées runs 6 letters (CVVVVC) against dues's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses douées with dues
A purely visual mix-up. douées (\dwe\) and dues (\dy\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55241, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
douées is recorded at frequency rank #46,709, classified as anadj, pronounced \dwe\. 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 55241, this pair ranks #128,741 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of douées vs dues
Shared letters: desu. Private to "douées": oé. Private to "dues": -.
"douées" · 6 letters · shape CVVVVC · "dues" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dues ← ddues · duess · duse · udes
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "douées" for "dues" ever safe?
Which is more common, "douées" or "dues"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "douées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #128,741 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "douées" and "dues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Dombes vs douées". 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 #128,741 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.