Which to use
“durent” and “durer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,816
- “durent” frequency rank
- #4,566
- “durer” frequency rank
- 14382
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | durent | durer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel du passé simple du verbe devoir. | Continuer d’être, se prolonger. |
Where the eye mixes durent and durer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between durent and durer
A purely visual mix-up. durent (\dyʁ\) and durer (\dy.ʁe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14382, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
durent is recorded at frequency rank #9,816, classified as averb, pronounced \dyʁ\. durer is at rank #4,566, tagged as averb, 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 14382, this pair ranks #396,919 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of durent vs durer
Shared letters: deru. Private to "durent": nt. Private to "durer": -.
"durent" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "durer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "durent" and "durer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "durent" or "durer" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "durent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "durer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #396,919 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "durent" and "durer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "durent vs dureront". 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 #396,919 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.