duevsdursWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: due is a adjective, durs is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“due” is an adjective and “durs” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,838
“due” frequency rank
#6,699
“durs” frequency rank
10537
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature due durs
Definition Féminin singulier de dû. Le bagne.

Where the eye mixes due and durs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
due
4 ch
durs

Look-alike desk: due vs durs

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: due is \dy\ while durs is \dyʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10537, 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\. 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 10537, this pair ranks #412,613 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of due vs durs

Shared letters: du. Private to "due": e. Private to "durs": rs.

"due" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "durs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dursddurs · drus · durrs · durss · dusr · udrs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "due" for "durs" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "due" is an adjective and "durs" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "due" or "durs"?
"due" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,838 in our French list, against #6,699 for "durs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "due" 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 #412,613 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "due" 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 #412,613 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