coupéesvscouperWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: coupées is a adjective, couper is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“coupées” is an adjective and “couper” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,648
“coupées” frequency rank
#2,418
“couper” frequency rank
17066
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coupées couper
Definition Féminin pluriel de coupé. Diviser un corps continu, avec quelque chose de tranchant.

Same sound, different letters: coupées vs couper

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.

7 ch
coupées
6 ch
couper

Same sound, different spelling - coupées / couper

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: coupées and couper carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ku.pe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17066, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coupées is recorded at frequency rank #14,648, classified as anadj, pronounced \ku.pe\. couper is at rank #2,418, tagged as averb, pronounced \ku.pe\.

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 17066, this pair ranks #384,964 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of coupées vs couper

Shared letters: ceopu. Private to "coupées": . Private to "couper": r.

"coupées" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC  ·  "couper" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • couperccouper · copuer · couepr · couperr · coupper · coupre · cuoper

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "coupées" and "couper" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "coupées" is an adjective and "couper" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "coupées" or "couper" show up more?
"couper" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,418 in our French list, against #14,648 for "coupées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

"coupées" and "couper" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "coupées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "couper" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #384,964 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coupées" and "couper" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coupées vs courges". 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 #384,964 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list