duchésvsduréesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#39,757
“duchés” frequency rank
#20,424
“durées” frequency rank
60181
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature duchés durées
Definition Pluriel de duché. Pluriel de durée.

Where the eye mixes duchés and durées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. duchés (CVCCVC) and durées (CVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
duchés
6 ch
durées

Visual trap between duchés and durées

A purely visual mix-up. duchés (\dy.ʃe\) and durées (\dy.ʁe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60181, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

duchés is recorded at frequency rank #39,757, classified as anoun, pronounced \dy.ʃe\. durées is at rank #20,424, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dy.ʁe\.

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 60181, this pair ranks #99,021 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of duchés vs durées

Shared letters: dsué. Private to "duchés": ch. Private to "durées": er.

"duchés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "durées" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "duchés" for "durées" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\dy.ʃe\ versus \dy.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "duchés" or "durées"?
"durées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,424 in our French list, against #39,757 for "duchés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "duchés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "durées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #99,021 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "duchés" and "durées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dèche vs duchés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #99,021 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