Which to use
“due” and “dues” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,838
- “due” frequency rank
- #8,532
- “dues” frequency rank
- 12370
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | due | dues |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de dû. | Féminin pluriel de dû. |
Same sound, different letters: due vs dues
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - due / dues
This is the hard kind. due and dues are pronounced identically (\dy\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “due” sits inside “dues”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12370, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
due is recorded at frequency rank #3,838, classified as anadj, pronounced \dy\. dues is at rank #8,532, tagged as anadj, pronounced \dy\.
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 12370, this pair ranks #405,532 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of due vs dues
Shared letters: deu. Private to "due": -. Private to "dues": s.
"due" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "dues" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dues ← ddues · duess · duse · udes
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "due" and "dues" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "due" or "dues"?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "due" / "dues". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "due" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #405,532 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "due" and "dues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dues 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 #405,532 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.