ducksvsdursTell them apart

Which to use

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

#34,503
“ducks” frequency rank
#6,699
“durs” frequency rank
41202
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ducks durs
Definition Pluriel de duck. Le bagne.

Where the eye mixes ducks and durs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
ducks
4 ch
durs

Why the eye confuses ducks with durs

A purely visual mix-up. ducks (\ˈdʌks\) and durs (\dyʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41202, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ducks is recorded at frequency rank #34,503, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈdʌks\. 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 41202, this pair ranks #234,856 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ducks vs durs

Shared letters: dsu. Private to "ducks": ck. Private to "durs": r.

"ducks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "durs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ducksdcuks · dducks · duccks · duckks · duckss · ducsk · dukcs · udcks
  • dursddurs · drus · durrs · durss · dusr · udrs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ducks" for "durs" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ˈdʌks\ versus \dyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ducks" vs "durs" - which ranks higher?
"durs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,699 in our French list, against #34,503 for "ducks". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ducks" 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 #234,856 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ducks" and "durs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ducks vs ducon". 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 #234,856 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