Which to use
“courent” and “courre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,133
- “courent” frequency rank
- #38,733
- “courre” frequency rank
- 48866
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | courent | courre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de courir. | Forme ancienne de courir jusqu’au XIIIᵉ siècle. |
Same sound, different letters: courent vs courre
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - courent / courre
This is the hard kind. courent and courre are pronounced identically (\kuʁ\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48866, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
courent is recorded at frequency rank #10,133, classified as averb, pronounced \kuʁ\. 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 48866, this pair ranks #175,426 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of courent vs courre
Shared letters: ceoru. Private to "courent": nt. Private to "courre": -.
"courent" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC · "courre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "courent" and "courre" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "courent" or "courre" show up more?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "courent" / "courre". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "courent" 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 #175,426 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "courent" 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 #175,426 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.