DubaïvsdurasConfusable pair

Quick tell: Dubaï is a name, duras is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Dubaï” is a name and “duras” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,156
“Dubaï” frequency rank
#23,840
“duras” frequency rank
36996
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Dubaï duras
Definition Émirat de la péninsule arabique, un des Émirats arabes unis. Cépage donnant du raisin à petits grains noirs. Il est essentiellement cultivé dans la région de Gaillac.

Where the eye mixes Dubaï and duras

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Dubaï and duras follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Dubaï
5 ch
duras

Look-alike desk: Dubaï vs duras

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Dubaï is \du.baj\ while duras is \dy.ʁa\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36996, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Dubaï is recorded at frequency rank #13,156, classified as aname, pronounced \du.baj\. duras is at rank #23,840, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dy.ʁa\.

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 36996, this pair ranks #265,632 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Dubaï vs duras

Shared letters: adu. Private to "Dubaï": bï. Private to "duras": rs.

"Dubaï" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "duras" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • duras ← dduras · druas · duars · durass · durras · dursa · udras

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Dubaï" and "duras" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Dubaï" is a name and "duras" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Dubaï" or "duras"?
"Dubaï" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,156 in our French list, against #23,840 for "duras". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Dubaï" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "duras" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #265,632 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Dubaï" and "duras" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dray vs duras". 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 #265,632 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