coosvscoursWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#39,755
“coos” frequency rank
#47,550
“cours” frequency rank
87305
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coos cours
Definition third-person singular simple present indicative of coo three-month unit of television broadcasting corresponding to a natural season.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set coos and cours apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
coos
5 ch
cours

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: coos is averb and coursanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 87305, 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/. cours is at rank #47,550, tagged as anoun.

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 87305, this pair ranks #7,803 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of coos vs cours

Shared letters: cos. Private to "coos": -. Private to "cours": ru.

"coos" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "cours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coosccoos · cooss · coso · ocos
  • coursccours · corus · courrs · courss · cousr · cuors

Frequency comparison

coos#39,755
cours#47,550

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "coos" and "cours" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "coos" is a verb and "cours" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "coos" or "cours"?
"coos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,755 in our English list, against #47,550 for "cours". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering coos vs cours

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 “cours”.
  • 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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list