Which to use
“coulait” is a verb and “coulis” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #29,302
- “coulait” frequency rank
- #43,366
- “coulis” frequency rank
- 72668
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | coulait | coulis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait de couler. | Qui coule. N’est plus usité que dans la locution : Vent coulis : vent qui coule, qui se glisse au travers des fentes et des trous. |
Where the eye mixes coulait and coulis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. coulait runs 7 letters (CVVCVVC) against coulis's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between coulait and coulis
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: coulait is \ku.lɛ\ while coulis is \ku.li\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72668, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
coulait is recorded at frequency rank #29,302, classified as averb, pronounced \ku.lɛ\. coulis is at rank #43,366, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ku.li\.
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 72668, this pair ranks #43,207 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of coulait vs coulis
Shared letters: cilou. Private to "coulait": at. Private to "coulis": s.
"coulait" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC · "coulis" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "coulait" and "coulis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "coulait" or "coulis"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "coulait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "coulis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #43,207 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "coulait" and "coulis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coulis vs courais". 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 #43,207 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.