collaitvscouraitWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“collait” and “courait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#31,892
“collait” frequency rank
#19,795
“courait” frequency rank
51687
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature collait courait
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait de coller. Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de courir.

Where the eye mixes collait and courait

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
collait
7 ch
courait

Visual trap between collait and courait

A purely visual mix-up. collait (\kɔ.lɛ\) and courait (\ku.ʁɛ\) 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 51687, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

collait is recorded at frequency rank #31,892, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ.lɛ\. courait is at rank #19,795, tagged as averb, pronounced \ku.ʁɛ\.

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 51687, this pair ranks #153,173 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of collait vs courait

Shared letters: aciot. Private to "collait": l. Private to "courait": ru.

"collait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "courait" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • collaitccollait · clolait · colait · colalit · collaitt · collati · colliat · ocllait
  • couraitccourait · coruait · couarit · couraitt · courati · couriat · cuorait · ocurait

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "collait" and "courait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ.lɛ\ versus \ku.ʁɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "collait" or "courait" show up more?
"courait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,795 in our French list, against #31,892 for "collait". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "collait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "courait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #153,173 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "collait" and "courait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "colla vs collait". 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 #153,173 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