Which to use
“courber” and “courre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,681
- “courber” frequency rank
- #38,733
- “courre” frequency rank
- 85414
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | courber | courre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Rendre courbe. | Forme ancienne de courir jusqu’au XIIIᵉ siècle. |
Where the eye mixes courber and courre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. courber runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against courre's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: courber vs courre
A purely visual mix-up. courber (\kuʁ.be\) and courre (\kuʁ\) 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 85414, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
courber is recorded at frequency rank #46,681, classified as averb, pronounced \kuʁ.be\. 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 85414, this pair ranks #11,405 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of courber vs courre
Shared letters: ceoru. Private to "courber": b. Private to "courre": -.
"courber" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "courre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "courber" and "courre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "courber" or "courre" show up more?
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 "courber" 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 #11,405 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "courber" and "courre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courber 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 #11,405 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.