durvsDuranWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dur is a adjective, Duran is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dur” is an adjective and “Duran” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#940
“dur” frequency rank
#34,504
“Duran” frequency rank
35444
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dur Duran
Definition Ferme ; difficile à pénétrer ou à entamer. Commune française, située dans le département du Gers.

Where the eye mixes dur and Duran

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

3 ch
dur
5 ch
Duran

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dur is \dyʁ\ while Duran is \dy.ʁɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “dur” sits inside “Duran”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35444, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dur is recorded at frequency rank #940, classified as anadj, pronounced \dyʁ\. Duran is at rank #34,504, tagged as aname, pronounced \dy.ʁɑ̃\.

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 35444, this pair ranks #276,731 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dur vs Duran

Shared letters: dru. Private to "dur": -. Private to "Duran": an.

"dur" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Duran" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Durandduran · druan · duarn · durann · durna · durran · udran

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dur" and "Duran" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dur" is an adjective and "Duran" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dur" or "Duran"?
"dur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #940 in our French list, against #34,504 for "Duran". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "dur" and "Duran". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Duran" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #276,731 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dur" and "Duran" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dray vs Duran". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list