Which to use
“couchée” and “couches” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,398
- “couchée” frequency rank
- #4,742
- “couches” frequency rank
- 22140
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | couchée | couches |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Lieu où on loge la nuit en faisant voyage. | Temps pendant lequel une femme demeure au lit à cause de l’enfantement. |
Where the eye mixes couchée and couches
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. couchée (CVVCCVV) and couches (CVVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses couchée with couches
A purely visual mix-up. couchée (\ku.ʃe\) and couches (\kuʃ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22140, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
couchée is recorded at frequency rank #17,398, classified as anoun, pronounced \ku.ʃe\. couches is at rank #4,742, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kuʃ\.
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 22140, this pair ranks #359,636 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of couchée vs couches
Shared letters: cehou. Private to "couchée": é. Private to "couches": s.
"couchée" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV · "couches" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- couches ← ccouches · cocuhes · coucches · coucehs · couchess · couchhes · couchse · couhces
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "couchée" and "couches" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "couchée" or "couches"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "couchée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "couches" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #359,636 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "couchée" and "couches" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coaches vs couchée". 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 #359,636 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.