couraisvscourraitWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: courais is a noun, courrait is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“courais” is a noun and “courrait” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,582
“courais” frequency rank
#44,957
“courrait” frequency rank
94539
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature courais courrait
Definition Pluriel de courai. Troisième personne du singulier du conditionnel de courir.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set courais and courrait apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
courais
8 ch
courrait

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: courais is \ku.ʁe\ while courrait is \kuʁ.ʁɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 94539, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

courais is recorded at frequency rank #49,582, classified as anoun, pronounced \ku.ʁe\. 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 94539, this pair ranks #1,567 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of courais vs courrait

Shared letters: acioru. Private to "courais": s. Private to "courrait": t.

"courais" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC  ·  "courrait" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • couraisccourais · coruais · couaris · couraiss · courasi · courias · courrais · cuorais
  • courraitccourrait · corurait · courarit · courraitt · courrati · courriat · cuorrait · ocurrait

Frequency comparison

courais#49,582
courrait#44,957

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "courais" and "courrait" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "courais" is a noun and "courrait" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "courais" or "courrait"?
"courrait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,957 in our French list, against #49,582 for "courais". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering courais vs courrait

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “courais”; for a verb, it's “courrait”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “courais” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list