Which to use
“courge” is a noun and “courir” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,546
- “courge” frequency rank
- #2,707
- “courir” frequency rank
- 33253
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | courge | courir |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Genre de plantes de la famille des Cucurbitacées (Cucurbitaceae). | 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 courge and courir
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. courge (CVVCCV) and courir (CVVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: courge vs courir
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: courge is \kuʁʒ\ while courir is \ku.ʁiʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33253, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
courge is recorded at frequency rank #30,546, classified as anoun, pronounced \kuʁʒ\. 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 33253, this pair ranks #291,863 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of courge vs courir
Shared letters: coru. Private to "courge": eg. Private to "courir": i.
"courge" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "courir" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "courge" for "courir" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "courge" or "courir" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "courge" 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 #291,863 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "courge" and "courir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courge vs curage". 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 #291,863 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.