Which to use
“courent” and “courut” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,133
- “courent” frequency rank
- #42,809
- “courut” frequency rank
- 52942
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | courent | courut |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de courir. | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de courir. |
Where the eye mixes courent and courut
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. courent runs 7 letters (CVVCVCC) against courut's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between courent and courut
A purely visual mix-up. courent (\kuʁ\) and courut (\ku.ʁy\) 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 52942, 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\. courut is at rank #42,809, tagged as averb, pronounced \ku.ʁy\.
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 52942, this pair ranks #144,215 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of courent vs courut
Shared letters: cortu. Private to "courent": en. Private to "courut": -.
"courent" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC · "courut" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "courent" for "courut" ever safe?
Frequency check: "courent" vs "courut" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "courent" and "courut" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "courent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "courut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #144,215 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "courent" and "courut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courra vs courut". 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 #144,215 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.