courgevscourusWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: courge is a noun, courus is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“courge” is a noun and “courus” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,546
“courge” frequency rank
#45,530
“courus” frequency rank
76076
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature courge courus
Definition Genre de plantes de la famille des Cucurbitacées (Cucurbitaceae). Participe passé masculin pluriel de courir.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set courge and courus apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
courge
6 ch
courus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: courge is \kuʁʒ\ while courus is \ku.ʁy\. 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 76076, 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\. courus is at rank #45,530, 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 76076, this pair ranks #32,160 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of courge vs courus

Shared letters: coru. Private to "courge": eg. Private to "courus": s.

"courge" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "courus" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • courgeccourge · coruge · cougre · coureg · courgge · courrge · cuorge · ocurge
  • courusccourus · coruus · courrus · coursu · couruss · couurs · cuorus · ocurus

Frequency comparison

courge#30,546
courus#45,530

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "courge" and "courus" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "courge" is a noun and "courus" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "courge" or "courus"?
"courge" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,546 in our French list, against #45,530 for "courus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering courge vs courus

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “courge”; for a verb, it's “courus”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “courge” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list