doutaitvsduraitWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#19,261
“doutait” frequency rank
#28,523
“durait” frequency rank
47784
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature doutait durait
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de douter. Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de durer.

Where the eye mixes doutait and durait

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. doutait runs 7 letters (CVVCVVC) against durait's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
doutait
6 ch
durait

Why the eye confuses doutait with durait

A purely visual mix-up. doutait (\du.tɛ\) and durait (\dy.ʁɛ\) 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 47784, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

doutait is recorded at frequency rank #19,261, classified as averb, pronounced \du.tɛ\. durait is at rank #28,523, tagged as averb, pronounced \dy.ʁɛ\.

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 47784, this pair ranks #184,180 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of doutait vs durait

Shared letters: aditu. Private to "doutait": o. Private to "durait": r.

"doutait" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC  ·  "durait" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • doutait ← ddoutait · dotuait · douatit · doutaitt · doutati · doutiat · douttait · duotait
  • durait ← ddurait · druait · duarit · duraitt · durati · duriat · durrait · udrait

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "doutait" and "durait" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\du.tɛ\ versus \dy.ʁɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "doutait" or "durait" show up more?
"doutait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,261 in our French list, against #28,523 for "durait". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "doutait" and "durait" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "doutait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "durait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #184,180 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "doutait" and "durait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "durait vs durerait". 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 #184,180 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