coosvscourWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#39,755
“coos” frequency rank
#41,064
“cour” frequency rank
80819
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coos cour
Definition third-person singular simple present indicative of coo A three-month unit of television broadcasting, corresponding to one of the four seasons.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set coos and cour apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
coos
4 ch
cour

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: coos is /kuːz/ while cour is /ˈkʊə(ɹ)/. 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 80819, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coos is recorded at frequency rank #39,755, classified as averb, pronounced /kuːz/. cour is at rank #41,064, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkʊə(ɹ)/.

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 80819, this pair ranks #18,987 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of coos vs cour

Shared letters: co. Private to "coos": s. Private to "cour": ru.

"coos" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "cour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coosccoos · cooss · coso · ocos
  • courccour · coru · courr · cuor

Frequency comparison

coos#39,755
cour#41,064

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "coos" and "cour" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "coos" is a verb and "cour" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "coos" or "cour"?
"coos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,755 in our English list, against #41,064 for "cour". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering coos vs cour

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “coos”; for a noun, it's “cour”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “coos” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list