commuvscousuWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: commu is a noun, cousu is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#39,714
“commu” frequency rank
#30,963
“cousu” frequency rank
70677
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature commu cousu
Definition Communauté (en particulier sur Internet). Lié par une couture.

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch
commu
5 ch
cousu

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: commu is \kɔ.my\ while cousu is \ku.zy\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70677, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

commu is recorded at frequency rank #39,714, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.my\. cousu is at rank #30,963, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ku.zy\.

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 70677, this pair ranks #50,452 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of commu vs cousu

Shared letters: cou. Private to "commu": m. Private to "cousu": s.

"commu" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cousu" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • commuccommu · cmomu · comu · comum · ocmmu
  • cousuccousu · cosuu · coussu · couus · cuosu · ocusu

Frequency comparison

commu#39,714
cousu#30,963

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "commu" and "cousu" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "commu" is a noun and "cousu" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "commu" or "cousu"?
"cousu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,963 in our French list, against #39,714 for "commu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering commu vs cousu

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “commu”; for an adjective, it's “cousu”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “commu” 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