couraitvscourraitWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#19,795
“courait” frequency rank
#44,957
“courrait” frequency rank
64752
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature courait courrait
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de courir. Troisième personne du singulier du conditionnel de courir.

Where the eye mixes courait and courrait

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
courait
8 ch
courrait

Visual trap between courait and courrait

A purely visual mix-up. courait (\ku.ʁɛ\) and courrait (\kuʁ.ʁɛ\) 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 64752, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

courait is recorded at frequency rank #19,795, classified as averb, pronounced \ku.ʁɛ\. 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 64752, this pair ranks #75,512 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of courait vs courrait

Shared letters: aciortu. Private to "courait": -. Private to "courrait": -.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • couraitccourait · coruait · couarit · couraitt · courati · couriat · cuorait · ocurait
  • courraitccourrait · corurait · courarit · courraitt · courrati · courriat · cuorrait · ocurrait

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "courait" and "courrait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ku.ʁɛ\ versus \kuʁ.ʁɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "courait" or "courrait" show up more?
"courait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,795 in our French list, against #44,957 for "courrait". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "courait" and "courrait" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "courait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "courrait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #75,512 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "courait" and "courrait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courais vs courrait". 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 #75,512 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