codésvscoursWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#47,232
“codés” frequency rank
#202
“cours” frequency rank
47434
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature codés cours
Definition Masculin pluriel de codé. Mouvement d’écoulement naturel dans l’espace. → voir cours d’eau et …

Where the eye mixes codés and cours

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
codés
5 ch
cours

Look-alike desk: codés vs cours

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: codés is \kɔ.de\ while cours 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47434, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

codés is recorded at frequency rank #47,232, classified as anadj, pronounced \kɔ.de\. 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 47434, this pair ranks #186,977 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of codés vs cours

Shared letters: cos. Private to "codés": . Private to "cours": ru.

"codés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "cours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coursccours · corus · courrs · courss · cousr · cuors · ocurs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "codés" for "cours" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "codés" is an adjective and "cours" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "codés" or "cours" show up more?
"cours" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #202 in our French list, against #47,232 for "codés". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "codés" 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 #186,977 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "codés" and "cours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "codés vs conde". 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 #186,977 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