congésvscordesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#8,826
“congés” frequency rank
#6,282
“cordes” frequency rank
15108
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature congés cordes
Definition Pluriel de congé. Pluriel de corde.

Where the eye mixes congés and cordes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
congés
6 ch
cordes

Look-alike desk: congés vs cordes

A purely visual mix-up. congés (\kɔ̃.ʒe\) and cordes (\kɔʁd\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15108, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

congés is recorded at frequency rank #8,826, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.ʒe\. cordes is at rank #6,282, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔʁd\.

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 15108, this pair ranks #393,822 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of congés vs cordes

Shared letters: cos. Private to "congés": gné. Private to "cordes": der.

"congés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "cordes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cordesccordes · codres · corddes · cordess · cordse · coreds · corrdes · crodes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "congés" and "cordes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ̃.ʒe\ versus \kɔʁd\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "congés" or "cordes"?
"cordes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,282 in our French list, against #8,826 for "congés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "congés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cordes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #393,822 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "congés" and "cordes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "congés vs courges". 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 #393,822 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