courezvscourirWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“courez” and “courir” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#24,168
“courez” frequency rank
#2,707
“courir” frequency rank
26875
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature courez courir
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de courir. Se déplacer rapidement, avec impétuosité, par un mouvement alternatif des jambes ou des pattes prenant appui sur le sol, avec une phase de suspension en l’air, sans appui.

Where the eye mixes courez and courir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. courez and courir follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
courez
6 ch
courir

Visual trap between courez and courir

A purely visual mix-up. courez (\ku.ʁe\) and courir (\ku.ʁiʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26875, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

courez is recorded at frequency rank #24,168, classified as averb, pronounced \ku.ʁe\. courir is at rank #2,707, tagged as averb, pronounced \ku.ʁiʁ\.

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 26875, this pair ranks #332,311 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of courez vs courir

Shared letters: coru. Private to "courez": ez. Private to "courir": i.

"courez" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "courir" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • courez ← ccourez · coruez · couerz · courezz · courze · cuorez · ocurez
  • courir ← ccourir · coruir · couirr · courirr · courri · courrir · cuorir · ocurir

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "courez" and "courir" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ku.ʁe\ versus \ku.ʁiʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "courez" or "courir" show up more?
"courir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,707 in our French list, against #24,168 for "courez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "courez" and "courir" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "courez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "courir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #332,311 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "courez" and "courir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courez 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 #332,311 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list