consvscoupConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#43,090
“cons” frequency rank
#16,671
“coup” frequency rank
59761
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cons coup
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs con Treffen, Anschlag, Hieb, Schlag, Streich

Letter map: cons vs coup

Shared letters muted; letters that set cons and coup apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
cons
4 ch
coup

Role in the sentence - cons and coup

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cons is averb and coupanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59761, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cons is recorded at frequency rank #43,090, classified as averb, pronounced […]. coup is at rank #16,671, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ku].

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 59761, this pair ranks #812,355 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cons vs coup

Shared letters: co. Private to "cons": ns. Private to "coup": pu.

"cons" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "coup" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • consccons · cnos · conns · conss · cosn · ocns
  • coupccoup · copu · coupp · cuop · ocup

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cons" for "coup" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cons" is a verb and "coup" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "cons" or "coup" show up more?
"coup" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,671 in our German list, against #43,090 for "cons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "cons" and "coup".

  • Full dictionary entry for "cons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coup" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #812,355 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cons" and "coup" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cons vs puzzles". 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 #812,355 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list