Which to use
“courbe” is an adjective and “courre” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,745
- “courbe” frequency rank
- #38,733
- “courre” frequency rank
- 44478
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | courbe | courre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui n’est ni droit, ni composé de lignes droites. | Forme ancienne de courir jusqu’au XIIIᵉ siècle. |
Where the eye mixes courbe and courre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. courbe and courre follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between courbe and courre
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: courbe is \kuʁb\ while courre is \kuʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - b in “courbe” becomes r in “courre”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44478, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
courbe is recorded at frequency rank #5,745, classified as anadj, pronounced \kuʁb\. courre is at rank #38,733, tagged as averb, pronounced \kuʁ\.
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 44478, this pair ranks #210,168 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of courbe vs courre
Shared letters: ceoru. Private to "courbe": b. Private to "courre": -.
"courbe" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "courre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "courbe" for "courre" ever safe?
Which is more common, "courbe" or "courre"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "courbe" and "courre" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "courbe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "courre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #210,168 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "courbe" and "courre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courges vs courre". 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 #210,168 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.