Which to use
“courante” is a noun and “courantes” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,852
- “courante” frequency rank
- #11,201
- “courantes” frequency rank
- 17053
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | courante | courantes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Espèce d’ancienne danse. | Féminin pluriel de courant. |
Same sound, different letters: courante vs courantes
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. courante runs 8 letters (CVVCVCCV) against courantes's 9 (CVVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - courante and courantes
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: courante and courantes carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ku.ʁɑ̃t\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “courante” sits inside “courantes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17053, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
courante is recorded at frequency rank #5,852, classified as anoun, pronounced \ku.ʁɑ̃t\. courantes is at rank #11,201, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ku.ʁɑ̃t\.
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 17053, this pair ranks #385,035 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of courante vs courantes
Shared letters: acenortu. Private to "courante": -. Private to "courantes": s.
"courante" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCCV · "courantes" · 9 letters · shape CVVCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "courante" and "courantes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "courante" vs "courantes" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "courante" / "courantes". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "courante" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "courantes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #385,035 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "courante" and "courantes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "collante vs courante". 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 #385,035 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.