Which to use
“du” is an article and “durs” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17
- “du” frequency rank
- #6,699
- “durs” frequency rank
- 6716
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | du | durs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Une quantité indéfinie de. Note d’usage : Utilisé avec un nom indénombrable. | Le bagne. |
Where the eye mixes du and durs
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between du and durs
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: du is \dy\ while durs is \dyʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “du” sits inside “durs”, and the parts of speech differ too (article vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6716, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
du is recorded at frequency rank #17, classified as anarticle, pronounced \dy\. durs is at rank #6,699, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dyʁ\.
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 6716, this pair ranks #425,439 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of du vs durs
Shared letters: du. Private to "du": -. Private to "durs": rs.
"du" · 2 letters · shape CV · "durs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- durs ← ddurs · drus · durrs · durss · dusr · udrs
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "du" and "durs" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "du" or "durs"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "du" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "durs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #425,439 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "du" and "durs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "durs 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 #425,439 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.