Which to use
“coup” and “cup” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #226
- “coup” frequency rank
- #8,225
- “cup” frequency rank
- 8451
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | coup | cup |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Impression que fait un corps sur un autre en le frappant. | Cup menstruelle. |
Where the eye mixes coup and cup
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. coup (\ku\) and cup (\kœp\) 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 8451, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
coup is recorded at frequency rank #226, classified as anoun, pronounced \ku\. cup is at rank #8,225, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kœp\.
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 8451, this pair ranks #419,980 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of coup vs cup
Shared letters: cpu. Private to "coup": o. Private to "cup": -.
"coup" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "cup" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- coup ← ccoup · copu · coupp · cuop · ocup