Which to use
“dour” is an adjective and “du” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,426
- “dour” frequency rank
- #17
- “du” frequency rank
- 44443
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dour | du |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Austère, dur, inhospitalier. | Une quantité indéfinie de. Note d’usage : Utilisé avec un nom indénombrable. |
Where the eye mixes dour and du
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between dour and du
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dour is \ˈdʊə(ɹ)\ while du is \dy\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs article), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44443, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dour is recorded at frequency rank #44,426, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈdʊə(ɹ)\. du is at rank #17, tagged as anarticle, 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 44443, this pair ranks #210,432 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dour vs du
Shared letters: du. Private to "dour": or. Private to "du": -.
"dour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "du" · 2 letters · shape CV
Known mistypes of this pair
- dour ← ddour · doru · dourr · duor · odur
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dour" for "du" ever safe?
Frequency check: "dour" vs "du" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "dour" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "du" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #210,432 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dour" and "du" 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 #210,432 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.