Which to use
“doués” and “dour” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,248
- “doués” frequency rank
- #44,426
- “dour” frequency rank
- 58674
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | doués | dour |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de doué. | Austère, dur, inhospitalier. |
Where the eye mixes doués and dour
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. doués runs 5 letters (CVVVC) against dour's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: doués vs dour
A purely visual mix-up. doués (\dwe\) and dour (\ˈdʊə(ɹ)\) 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 58674, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
doués is recorded at frequency rank #14,248, classified as anadj, pronounced \dwe\. dour is at rank #44,426, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ˈdʊə(ɹ)\.
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 58674, this pair ranks #107,614 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of doués vs dour
Shared letters: dou. Private to "doués": sé. Private to "dour": r.
"doués" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC · "dour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dour ← ddour · doru · dourr · duor · odur
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "doués" for "dour" ever safe?
Which is more common, "doués" or "dour"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "doués" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #107,614 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "doués" and "dour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "domi vs dour". 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 #107,614 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.