chutvscourWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#12,739
“chut” frequency rank
#669
“cour” frequency rank
13408
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chut cour
Definition Interjection dont on se sert pour avertir ou ordonner de faire silence. Espace découvert qui dépend d’une maison, d’un hôtel, etc., et qui est entouré de murs ou de bâtiments.

Where the eye mixes chut and cour

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. chut (CCVC) and cour (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
chut
4 ch
cour

Visual trap between chut and cour

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chut is \ʃyt\ while cour is \kuʁ\. 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 (intj vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13408, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chut is recorded at frequency rank #12,739, classified as anintj, pronounced \ʃyt\. cour is at rank #669, 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 13408, this pair ranks #401,147 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chut vs cour

Shared letters: cu. Private to "chut": ht. Private to "cour": or.

"chut" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "cour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chutcchut · chhut · chtu · chutt · cuht · hcut
  • courccour · coru · courr · cuor · ocur

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chut" for "cour" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chut" is an intj and "cour" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "chut" vs "cour" - which ranks higher?
"cour" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #669 in our French list, against #12,739 for "chut". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chut" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #401,147 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chut" and "cour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chah vs chut". 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 #401,147 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list