consignevsCousineWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#12,539
“consigne” frequency rank
#7,170
“Cousine” frequency rank
19709
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature consigne Cousine
Definition Ordre, instruction que l’on donne à une sentinelle, à un soldat. Cousine.

Where the eye mixes consigne and Cousine

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. consigne runs 8 letters (CVCCVCCV) against Cousine's 7 (CVVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
consigne
7 ch
Cousine

Look-alike desk: consigne vs Cousine

A purely visual mix-up. consigne (\kɔ̃.siɲ\) and Cousine (\kuˈziː.nə\) 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 19709, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

consigne is recorded at frequency rank #12,539, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.siɲ\. Cousine is at rank #7,170, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kuˈziː.nə\.

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 19709, this pair ranks #371,938 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of consigne vs Cousine

Shared letters: ceinos. Private to "consigne": g. Private to "Cousine": u.

"consigne" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "Cousine" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • consigne ← cconsigne · cnosigne · conisgne · connsigne · consgine · consigen · consiggne · consignne
  • Cousine ← ccousine · cosuine · couisne · cousien · cousinne · cousnie · coussine · cuosine

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "consigne" and "Cousine" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ̃.siɲ\ versus \kuˈziː.nə\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "consigne" or "Cousine"?
"Cousine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,170 in our French list, against #12,539 for "consigne". 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 "consigne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Cousine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #371,938 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "consigne" and "Cousine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "consigne vs consignés". 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 #371,938 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