cou vs coûts, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#3,063
“cou” frequency rank: #3,450
“coûts” frequency rank: 6513
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cou	coûts
Definition	Partie du corps qui joint la tête aux épaules.	Pluriel de coût.

Same sound, different letters: cou vs coûts

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 2 letters.

3 ch

cou

5 ch

coûts

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

This is the hard kind. cou and coûts are pronounced identically (\ku\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6513, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cou is recorded at frequency rank #3,063, classified as anoun, pronounced \ku\. coûts is at rank #3,450, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ku\.

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 6513, this pair ranks #426,023 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cou vs coûts

Shared letters: co. Private to "cou": u. Private to "coûts": stû.

"cou" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "coûts" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cou" and "coûts" be used interchangeably?

No. They are pronounced the same (\ku\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.

Which is more common, "cou" or "coûts"?

"cou" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,063 in our French list, against #3,450 for "coûts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "cou" and "coûts". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "cou" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "coûts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #426,023 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"cou" and "coûts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coupa vs coûts". Nearby pair

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.