durcivsduréeConfusable pair

Quick tell: durci is a verb, durée is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“durci” is a verb and “durée” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,770
“durci” frequency rank
#1,025
“durée” frequency rank
38795
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature durci durée
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe durcir. Espace de temps pendant lequel une chose dure.

Where the eye mixes durci and durée

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

5 ch
durci
5 ch
durée

Look-alike desk: durci vs durée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: durci is \dyʁ.si\ while durée is \dy.ʁe\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38795, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

durci is recorded at frequency rank #37,770, classified as averb, pronounced \dyʁ.si\. durée is at rank #1,025, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dy.ʁe\.

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 38795, this pair ranks #252,748 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of durci vs durée

Shared letters: dru. Private to "durci": ci. Private to "durée": .

"durci" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "durée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • durciddurci · druci · ducri · durcci · duric · durrci · udrci

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "durci" for "durée" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "durci" is a verb and "durée" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "durci" or "durée" show up more?
"durée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,025 in our French list, against #37,770 for "durci". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "durci" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "durée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #252,748 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "durci" and "durée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DCI vs durci". 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 #252,748 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