douéesvsduresWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“douées” and “dures” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#46,709
“douées” frequency rank
#10,690
“dures” frequency rank
57399
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature douées dures
Definition Féminin pluriel de doué. Féminin pluriel de dur.

Where the spellings diverge

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

6 ch
douées
5 ch
dures

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. douées (\dwe\) and dures (\dyʁ\) 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 57399, 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\. dures is at rank #10,690, 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 57399, this pair ranks #115,271 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of douées vs dures

Shared letters: desu. Private to "douées": . Private to "dures": r.

"douées" · 6 letters · shape CVVVVC  ·  "dures" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • duresddures · drues · duers · duress · durres · durse · udres

Frequency comparison

douées#46,709
dures#10,690

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "douées" and "dures" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\dwe\ versus \dyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "douées" or "dures"?
"dures" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,690 in our French list, against #46,709 for "douées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering douées vs dures

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “douées” 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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list