coupesvscuresWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“coupes” and “cures” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#5,235
“coupes” frequency rank
#30,120
“cures” frequency rank
35355
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coupes cures
Definition Pluriel de coupe. Pluriel de cure.

Where the eye mixes coupes and cures

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
coupes
5 ch
cures

Why the eye confuses coupes with cures

A purely visual mix-up. coupes (\kup\) and cures (\kyʁ\) 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 35355, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coupes is recorded at frequency rank #5,235, classified as anoun, pronounced \kup\. cures is at rank #30,120, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kyʁ\.

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 35355, this pair ranks #277,291 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of coupes vs cures

Shared letters: cesu. Private to "coupes": op. Private to "cures": r.

"coupes" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "cures" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coupesccoupes · copues · coueps · coupess · couppes · coupse · cuopes · ocupes
  • curesccures · cuers · curess · curres · curse · ucres

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "coupes" and "cures" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kup\ versus \kyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "coupes" vs "cures" - which ranks higher?
"coupes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,235 in our French list, against #30,120 for "cures". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "coupes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cures" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #277,291 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coupes" and "cures" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courges vs cures". 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 #277,291 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