Which to use
“chars” and “cours” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,971
- “chars” frequency rank
- #202
- “cours” frequency rank
- 9173
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chars | cours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de char. | Mouvement d’écoulement naturel dans l’espace. → voir cours d’eau et … |
Where the eye mixes chars and cours
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses chars with cours
A purely visual mix-up. chars (\ʃaʁ\) and cours (\kuʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9173, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chars is recorded at frequency rank #8,971, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃaʁ\. cours is at rank #202, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kuʁ\.
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 9173, this pair ranks #417,553 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of chars vs cours
Shared letters: crs. Private to "chars": ah. Private to "cours": ou.
"chars" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "cours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "chars" and "cours" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "chars" or "cours" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "chars" and "cours" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "chars" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #417,553 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chars" and "cours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chah vs chars". 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 #417,553 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.