Which to use
“coulait” and “courrait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,302
- “coulait” frequency rank
- #44,957
- “courrait” frequency rank
- 74259
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | coulait | courrait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait de couler. | Troisième personne du singulier du conditionnel de courir. |
Where the eye mixes coulait and courrait
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. coulait runs 7 letters (CVVCVVC) against courrait's 8 (CVVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: coulait vs courrait
A purely visual mix-up. coulait (\ku.lɛ\) and courrait (\kuʁ.ʁɛ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74259, 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\. courrait is at rank #44,957, tagged as averb, pronounced \kuʁ.ʁɛ\.
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 74259, this pair ranks #37,699 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of coulait vs courrait
Shared letters: aciotu. Private to "coulait": l. Private to "courrait": r.
"coulait" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC · "courrait" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "coulait" for "courrait" ever safe?
Frequency check: "coulait" vs "courrait" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
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 "courrait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #37,699 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "coulait" and "courrait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courais vs courrait". 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 #37,699 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.