durasvsDuvalWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: duras is a noun, Duval is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“duras” is a noun and “Duval” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,840
“duras” frequency rank
#15,857
“Duval” frequency rank
39697
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature duras Duval
Definition Cépage donnant du raisin à petits grains noirs. Il est essentiellement cultivé dans la région de Gaillac. Nom de famille.

Where the eye mixes duras and Duval

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

5 ch
duras
5 ch
Duval

Visual trap between duras and Duval

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: duras is \dy.ʁa\ while Duval is \dy.val\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39697, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

duras is recorded at frequency rank #23,840, classified as anoun, pronounced \dy.ʁa\. Duval is at rank #15,857, tagged as aname, pronounced \dy.val\.

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 39697, this pair ranks #246,055 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of duras vs Duval

Shared letters: adu. Private to "duras": rs. Private to "Duval": lv.

"duras" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Duval" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • durasdduras · druas · duars · durass · durras · dursa · udras
  • Duvaldduval · duavl · duvall · duvla · duvval · dvual · udval

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "duras" and "Duval" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "duras" is a noun and "Duval" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "duras" or "Duval" show up more?
"Duval" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,857 in our French list, against #23,840 for "duras". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "duras" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Duval" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #246,055 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "duras" and "Duval" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dray vs duras". 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 #246,055 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