Which to use
“courge” is a noun and “coûte” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,546
- “courge” frequency rank
- #2,915
- “coûte” frequency rank
- 33461
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | courge | coûte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Genre de plantes de la famille des Cucurbitacées (Cucurbitaceae). | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de coûter. |
Where the eye mixes courge and coûte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: courge vs coûte
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: courge is \kuʁʒ\ while coûte is \kut\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33461, 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\. coûte is at rank #2,915, tagged as averb, pronounced \kut\.
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 33461, this pair ranks #290,480 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of courge vs coûte
Shared letters: ceo. Private to "courge": gru. Private to "coûte": tû.
"courge" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "coûte" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- courge ← ccourge · coruge · cougre · coureg · courgge · courrge · cuorge · ocurge
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "courge" for "coûte" ever safe?
Which is more common, "courge" or "coûte"?
Useful next steps
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 "coûte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #290,480 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "courge" and "coûte" 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 #290,480 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.