Which to use
“courais” is a noun and “coûtait” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #49,582
- “courais” frequency rank
- #23,155
- “coûtait” frequency rank
- 72737
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | courais | coûtait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de courai. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait de coûter. |
Where the eye mixes courais and coûtait
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. courais and coûtait follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: courais vs coûtait
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: courais is \ku.ʁe\ while coûtait is \ku.tɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72737, 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\. coûtait is at rank #23,155, tagged as averb, pronounced \ku.tɛ\.
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 72737, this pair ranks #42,958 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of courais vs coûtait
Shared letters: acio. Private to "courais": rsu. Private to "coûtait": tû.
"courais" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC · "coûtait" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- courais ← ccourais · coruais · couaris · couraiss · courasi · courias · courrais · cuorais
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "courais" and "coûtait" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "courais" vs "coûtait" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "courais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "coûtait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #42,958 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "courais" and "coûtait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courais 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 #42,958 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.