Which to use
“coulait” and “coupait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,302
- “coulait” frequency rank
- #33,197
- “coupait” frequency rank
- 62499
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | coulait | coupait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait de couler. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait de couper. |
Where the eye mixes coulait and coupait
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: coulait vs coupait
A purely visual mix-up. coulait (\ku.lɛ\) and coupait (\ku.pɛ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - l in “coulait” becomes p in “coupait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62499, 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\. coupait is at rank #33,197, tagged as averb, pronounced \ku.pɛ\.
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 62499, this pair ranks #86,782 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of coulait vs coupait
Shared letters: aciotu. Private to "coulait": l. Private to "coupait": p.
"coulait" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC · "coupait" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "coulait" and "coupait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "coulait" or "coupait"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "coulait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "coupait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #86,782 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "coulait" and "coupait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coupait 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 #86,782 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.