Which to use
“chips” and “coups” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,366
- “chips” frequency rank
- #1,227
- “coups” frequency rank
- 12593
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chips | coups |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Très fine tranche de pommes de terre frite dans l’huile, saupoudrée légèrement de sel ou assaisonnée. | Pluriel de coup. |
Where the eye mixes chips and coups
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between chips and coups
A purely visual mix-up. chips (\ʃips\) and coups (\ku\) 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 12593, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chips is recorded at frequency rank #11,366, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃips\. coups is at rank #1,227, 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 12593, this pair ranks #404,593 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of chips vs coups
Shared letters: cps. Private to "chips": hi. Private to "coups": ou.
"chips" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "coups" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "chips" and "coups" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "chips" or "coups" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "chips" and "coups" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "chips" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "coups" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #404,593 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chips" and "coups" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chips vs CIP". 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 #404,593 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.