Which to use
“durée” and “durées” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,025
- “durée” frequency rank
- #20,424
- “durées” frequency rank
- 21449
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | durée | durées |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Espace de temps pendant lequel une chose dure. | Pluriel de durée. |
Same sound, different letters: durée vs durées
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. durée runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against durées's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: durée vs durées
This is the hard kind. durée and durées are pronounced identically (\dy.ʁe\) and both work as anoun. 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) - “durée” sits inside “durées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21449, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
durée is recorded at frequency rank #1,025, classified as anoun, pronounced \dy.ʁe\. durées is at rank #20,424, 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 21449, this pair ranks #363,116 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of durée vs durées
Shared letters: derué. Private to "durée": -. Private to "durées": s.
"durée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "durées" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "durée" for "durées" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "durée" or "durées" show up more?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "durée" / "durées". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "durée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "durées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #363,116 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "durée" and "durées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "diurnes vs durées". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #363,116 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.