coltsvscomesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: colts is a noun, comes is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“colts” is a noun and “comes” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,350
“colts” frequency rank
#32,750
“comes” frequency rank
76100
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature colts comes
Definition Pluriel de colt. Troisième personne du singulier de l'indicatif présent du verbe to come.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set colts and comes apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
colts
5 ch
comes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: colts is \kɔlt\ while comes is \kʌmz\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76100, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

colts is recorded at frequency rank #43,350, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔlt\. comes is at rank #32,750, tagged as averb, pronounced \kʌmz\.

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 76100, this pair ranks #32,101 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of colts vs comes

Shared letters: cos. Private to "colts": lt. Private to "comes": em.

"colts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "comes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coltsccolts · clots · collts · colst · coltss · coltts · cotls · oclts
  • comesccomes · cmoes · coems · comess · commes · comse · ocmes

Frequency comparison

colts#43,350
comes#32,750

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "colts" and "comes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "colts" is a noun and "comes" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "colts" or "comes"?
"comes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,750 in our French list, against #43,350 for "colts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering colts vs comes

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “colts”; for a verb, it's “comes”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “colts” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list