Which to use
“clous” and “cour” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #12,129
- “clous” frequency rank
- #669
- “cour” frequency rank
- 12798
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clous | cour |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Zone protégée par des clous dans un passage clouté. | Espace découvert qui dépend d’une maison, d’un hôtel, etc., et qui est entouré de murs ou de bâtiments. |
Where the eye mixes clous and cour
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. clous runs 5 letters (CCVVC) against cour's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between clous and cour
A purely visual mix-up. clous (\klu\) and cour (\kuʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12798, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clous is recorded at frequency rank #12,129, classified as anoun, pronounced \klu\. 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 12798, this pair ranks #403,706 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of clous vs cour
Shared letters: cou. Private to "clous": ls. Private to "cour": r.
"clous" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "cour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "clous" and "cour" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "clous" vs "cour" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "clous" 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 #403,706 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clous" and "cour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "casus vs clous". 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 #403,706 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.