courgevscousueWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#30,546
“courge” frequency rank
#39,728
“cousue” frequency rank
70274
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature courge cousue
Definition Genre de plantes de la famille des Cucurbitacées (Cucurbitaceae). Cigarette industrielle, déjà roulée, par opposition à celle que l’on roule soi-même.

Where the spellings diverge

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

6 ch
courge
6 ch
cousue

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. courge (\kuʁʒ\) and cousue (\ku.zy\) 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 70274, 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\. cousue is at rank #39,728, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ku.zy\.

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 70274, this pair ranks #51,975 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of courge vs cousue

Shared letters: ceou. Private to "courge": gr. Private to "cousue": s.

"courge" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "cousue" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • courgeccourge · coruge · cougre · coureg · courgge · courrge · cuorge · ocurge
  • cousueccousue · cosuue · couseu · coussue · couuse · cuosue · ocusue

Frequency comparison

courge#30,546
cousue#39,728

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "courge" and "cousue" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kuʁʒ\ versus \ku.zy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "courge" or "cousue"?
"courge" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,546 in our French list, against #39,728 for "cousue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering courge vs cousue

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • 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