cornervscourberWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#13,555
“corner” frequency rank
#46,681
“courber” frequency rank
60236
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature corner courber
Definition Sonner d’un cornet ou d’une corne. Rendre courbe.

Where the eye mixes corner and courber

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. corner runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against courber's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
corner
7 ch
courber

Why the eye confuses corner with courber

A purely visual mix-up. corner (\kɔʁ.ne\) and courber (\kuʁ.be\) 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 60236, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

corner is recorded at frequency rank #13,555, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔʁ.ne\. courber is at rank #46,681, tagged as averb, pronounced \kuʁ.be\.

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 60236, this pair ranks #98,713 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of corner vs courber

Shared letters: ceor. Private to "corner": n. Private to "courber": bu.

"corner" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "courber" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • corner ← ccorner · conrer · corenr · cornerr · cornner · cornre · corrner · croner
  • courber ← ccourber · coruber · coubrer · courbber · courberr · courbre · courebr · courrber

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "corner" and "courber" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kɔʁ.ne\ versus \kuʁ.be\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "corner" vs "courber" - which ranks higher?
"corner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,555 in our French list, against #46,681 for "courber". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "corner" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "courber" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #98,713 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "corner" and "courber" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courber 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 #98,713 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