coeursvscourtsTell them apart

Quick tell: coeurs is a typographic variant, courts is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“coeurs” is a typographic variant and “courts” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,662
“coeurs” frequency rank
#4,931
“courts” frequency rank
15593
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coeurs courts
Definition Pluriel de coeur. Masculin pluriel de court.

Where the eye mixes coeurs and courts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. coeurs (CVVVCC) and courts (CVVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
coeurs
6 ch
courts

Look-alike desk: coeurs vs courts

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: coeurs is \kœʁ\ while courts is \kuʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (typographic variant vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15593, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coeurs is recorded at frequency rank #10,662, classified as atypographic variant, pronounced \kœʁ\. courts is at rank #4,931, tagged as anadj, 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 15593, this pair ranks #391,688 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of coeurs vs courts

Shared letters: corsu. Private to "coeurs": e. Private to "courts": t.

"coeurs" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCC  ·  "courts" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coeurs ← ccoeurs · ceours · coerus · coeurrs · coeurss · coeusr · couers · oceurs
  • courts ← ccourts · coruts · courrts · courst · courtss · courtts · coutrs · cuorts

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "coeurs" and "courts" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "coeurs" is a typographic variant and "courts" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "coeurs" or "courts"?
"courts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,931 in our French list, against #10,662 for "coeurs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "coeurs" and "courts" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "coeurs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "courts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #391,688 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coeurs" and "courts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coeurs vs courus". 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 #391,688 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