Which to use
“du” is an article and “dum” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17
- “du” frequency rank
- #37,286
- “dum” frequency rank
- 37303
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | du | dum |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Une quantité indéfinie de. Note d’usage : Utilisé avec un nom indénombrable. | Pendant, durant, pendant que, tandis que. |
Where the eye mixes du and dum
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: du vs dum
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: du is \dy\ while dum is \dum\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “du” sits inside “dum”, and the parts of speech differ too (article vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37303, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
du is recorded at frequency rank #17, classified as anarticle, pronounced \dy\. dum is at rank #37,286, tagged as aprep, pronounced \dum\.
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 37303, this pair ranks #263,401 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of du vs dum
Shared letters: du. Private to "du": -. Private to "dum": m.
"du" · 2 letters · shape CV · "dum" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "du" and "dum" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "du" or "dum" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "du" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dum" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #263,401 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "du" and "dum" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DCI vs dum". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #263,401 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.