Which to use
“congés” and “côtes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,826
- “congés” frequency rank
- #3,395
- “côtes” frequency rank
- 12221
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | congés | côtes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de congé. | Pluriel de côte. |
Where the eye mixes congés and côtes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses congés with côtes
A purely visual mix-up. congés (\kɔ̃.ʒe\) and côtes (\kot\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12221, 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\. côtes is at rank #3,395, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kot\.
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 12221, this pair ranks #406,112 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of congés vs côtes
Shared letters: cs. Private to "congés": gnoé. Private to "côtes": etô.
"congés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "côtes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "congés" and "côtes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "congés" or "côtes" show up more?
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 "congés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "côtes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #406,112 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "congés" and "côtes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "congés vs courges". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #406,112 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.