Which to use
“coucou” is a noun and “couru” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,440
- “coucou” frequency rank
- #9,459
- “couru” frequency rank
- 14899
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | coucou | couru |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom normalisé de 11 genres assez hétérogènes comprenant 56 espèces d'oiseaux de la famille des cuculidés habitant l'Ancien Monde, essentiellement caractérisées par leur parasitisme de couvée, habitude par laquelle elles confient la couvaison et l'élevage des oisillons à d'autres espèces d'oiseaux le plus souvent plus petites qu'elles; l'espèce-type de ce groupe d'oiseaux est le coucou gris (Cuculus canorus) dont le cri a donné son nom au genre. | Fréquenté. |
Where the eye mixes coucou and couru
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. coucou runs 6 letters (CVVCVV) against couru's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: coucou vs couru
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: coucou is \ku.ku\ while couru is \ku.ʁy\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14899, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
coucou is recorded at frequency rank #5,440, classified as anoun, pronounced \ku.ku\. couru is at rank #9,459, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ku.ʁy\.
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 14899, this pair ranks #394,714 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of coucou vs couru
Shared letters: cou. Private to "coucou": -. Private to "couru": r.
"coucou" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV · "couru" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "coucou" and "couru" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "coucou" vs "couru" - which ranks higher?
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 "coucou" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "couru" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #394,714 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "coucou" and "couru" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coupa vs couru". 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 #394,714 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.