Which to use
“cools” is an adjective and “cours” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,813
- “cools” frequency rank
- #202
- “cours” frequency rank
- 23015
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cools | cours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin (et parfois féminin) pluriel de cool. | Mouvement d’écoulement naturel dans l’espace. → voir cours d’eau et … |
Where the eye mixes cools and cours
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between cools and cours
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cools is \kul\ while cours is \kuʁ\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23015, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cools is recorded at frequency rank #22,813, classified as anadj, pronounced \kul\. cours is at rank #202, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kuʁ\.
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 23015, this pair ranks #354,839 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cools vs cours
Shared letters: cos. Private to "cools": l. Private to "cours": ru.
"cools" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "cours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cools" and "cours" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "cools" or "cours"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cools" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #354,839 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cools" and "cours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cools vs coon". 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 #354,839 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.