Welcome to our French word of the week blog! In this edition, we’re exploring the word dur.
First of all, take a listen to how it should sound by using the audio clip below:
While the translation might not seem immediately obvious, dur acts like a root for some English words. Can you work out the meaning through English words including ‘dur’. Think about ‘durable’, ‘durability’ or the verb ‘endure’. When you think about what these words really mean and what they have in common, you might come to the correct conclusion that dur means ‘tough’ or ‘hard’ in French.
The interesting thing about dur, is that you’ll see it used as both an adverb and an adjective. However, when using it as an adjective, you’ll need to follow rules to make the adjective agree with the noun it describes. The spelling changes for dur include the following options:
- dur – masculine singular
- dure – feminine singular
- durs – masculine plural
- dures – feminine plural
As we move into our examples, we’ll take a look at the adverbial use first:
Ils ont travaillé dur pour réussir. They worked hard in order to succeed.
Ma sœur m’a frappé dur au bras ! My sister hit me hard on the arm!
Now we can look at the adjective, which is the most common usage. Note how the spelling changes throughout our examples:
lit (m) dur hard/firm bed
disque (m) dur hard drive
temps (mpl) durs hard/tough times
viande (f) dure tough meat (in cooking)
C’est trop dur, je n’y arrive pas. It’s too hard, I can’t do it.
Il m’a jeté un regard très dur. He gave me a really stern/harsh look.
Notre grand-mère avait une vie dure. Our grandmother used to have a hard life.
Les conditions pour louer un appartement à Paris sont de plus en plus dures. The conditions for renting a flat in Paris are getting tougher and tougher.
être dur(e) avec quelqu’un to be hard/tough on someone
Just for a bonus, it’s worth noting that dur can be a noun too, in both masculine and feminine forms, and with various different meanings:
en dur permanent; solid; long-lasting
construire en dur to build/construct something solid
à la dure (to do something) the hard way
un dur(e) a tough nut (to describe a person figuratively, not a real nut!)
Thank you for reading this week’s blog – we hope that you didn’t find this word too hard to understand! Come back next week for another dose of French vocabulary.
Written by Holly Tarbet, freelance copywriter and editor.
All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.
