Which to use
“du” is an article and “dues” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17
- “du” frequency rank
- #8,532
- “dues” frequency rank
- 8549
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | du | dues |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Une quantité indéfinie de. Note d’usage : Utilisé avec un nom indénombrable. | Féminin pluriel de dû. |
Same sound, different letters: du vs dues
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 2 letters.
Homophone desk: du vs dues
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: du and dues carry the same recorded pronunciation, \dy\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anarticle, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “du” sits inside “dues”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8549, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
du is recorded at frequency rank #17, classified as anarticle, pronounced \dy\. dues is at rank #8,532, 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 8549, this pair ranks #419,656 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of du vs dues
Shared letters: du. Private to "du": -. Private to "dues": es.
"du" · 2 letters · shape CV · "dues" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dues ← ddues · duess · duse · udes
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "du" and "dues" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "du" vs "dues" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "du" / "dues". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "du" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #419,656 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "du" and "dues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dues vs dust". 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 #419,656 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.