douésvsdusTell them apart

Which to use

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

#14,248
“doués” frequency rank
#9,817
“dus” frequency rank
24065
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature doués dus
Definition Masculin pluriel de doué. Masculin pluriel de dû.

Where the eye mixes doués and dus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
doués
3 ch
dus

Why the eye confuses doués with dus

A purely visual mix-up. doués (\dwe\) and dus (\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 24065, 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\. dus is at rank #9,817, 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 24065, this pair ranks #348,851 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of doués vs dus

Shared letters: dsu. Private to "doués": . Private to "dus": -.

"doués" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "dus" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "doués" and "dus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\dwe\ versus \dy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "doués" vs "dus" - which ranks higher?
"dus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,817 in our French list, against #14,248 for "doués". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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 "dus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #348,851 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "doués" and "dus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déçues vs doués". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #348,851 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list