Which to use
“collée” is a verb and “coulées” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,886
- “collée” frequency rank
- #26,683
- “coulées” frequency rank
- 48569
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | collée | coulées |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé féminin singulier de coller. | Féminin pluriel de coulé. |
Where the eye mixes collée and coulées
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. collée runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against coulées's 7 (CVVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between collée and coulées
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: collée is \kɔ.le\ while coulées is \ku.le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48569, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
collée is recorded at frequency rank #21,886, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ.le\. coulées is at rank #26,683, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ku.le\.
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 48569, this pair ranks #177,873 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of collée vs coulées
Shared letters: celoé. Private to "collée": -. Private to "coulées": su.
"collée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "coulées" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "collée" and "coulées" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "collée" or "coulées"?
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 "collée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "coulées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #177,873 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "collée" and "coulées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coulées vs courges". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #177,873 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.