Which to use
“cou” and “kou” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,063
- “cou” frequency rank
- #47,413
- “kou” frequency rank
- 50476
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cou | kou |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie du corps qui joint la tête aux épaules. | Tambour chinois. |
Same sound, different letters: cou vs kou
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 2 letters. cou and kou follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Ear matches; page differs - cou and kou
This is the hard kind. cou and kou 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 a single letter - c in “cou” becomes k in “kou”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50476, 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\. kou is at rank #47,413, 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 50476, this pair ranks #162,322 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cou vs kou
Shared letters: ou. Private to "cou": c. Private to "kou": k.
"cou" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "kou" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cou" for "kou" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "cou" or "kou" show up more?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "cou" / "kou". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "cou" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "kou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #162,322 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cou" and "kou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kou vs ky". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #162,322 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.