Which to use
“cour” and “cup” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #669
- “cour” frequency rank
- #8,225
- “cup” frequency rank
- 8894
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cour | cup |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Espace découvert qui dépend d’une maison, d’un hôtel, etc., et qui est entouré de murs ou de bâtiments. | Cup menstruelle. |
Where the eye mixes cour and cup
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses cour with cup
A purely visual mix-up. cour (\kuʁ\) 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 8894, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cour is recorded at frequency rank #669, classified as anoun, pronounced \kuʁ\. 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 8894, this pair ranks #418,511 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cour vs cup
Shared letters: cu. Private to "cour": or. Private to "cup": p.
"cour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "cup" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- cour ← ccour · coru · courr · cuor · ocur
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cour" for "cup" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "cour" or "cup" show up more?
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 "cour" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cup" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #418,511 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cour" and "cup" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coupa vs cup". 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 #418,511 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.