Which to use
“cotée” is an adjective and “coulée” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,815
- “cotée” frequency rank
- #18,972
- “coulée” frequency rank
- 41787
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cotée | coulée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de coté. | Action de s’écouler ; résultat de cette action. |
Where the eye mixes cotée and coulée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cotée runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against coulée's 6 (CVVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between cotée and coulée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cotée is \kɔ.te\ while coulée is \ku.le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41787, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cotée is recorded at frequency rank #22,815, classified as anadj, pronounced \kɔ.te\. coulée is at rank #18,972, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ku.le\.
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 41787, this pair ranks #230,493 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cotée vs coulée
Shared letters: ceoé. Private to "cotée": t. Private to "coulée": lu.
"cotée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "coulée" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cotée" and "coulée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "cotée" or "coulée" 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 "cotée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "coulée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #230,493 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cotée" and "coulée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conde vs cotée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #230,493 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.