Which to use
“courges” and “cours” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,583
- “courges” frequency rank
- #202
- “cours” frequency rank
- 49785
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | courges | cours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de courge. | Mouvement d’écoulement naturel dans l’espace. → voir cours d’eau et … |
Where the eye mixes courges and cours
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. courges runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against cours's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: courges vs cours
A purely visual mix-up. courges (\kuʁʒ\) and cours (\kuʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49785, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
courges is recorded at frequency rank #49,583, classified as anoun, pronounced \kuʁʒ\. cours is at rank #202, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kuʁ\.
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 49785, this pair ranks #167,873 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of courges vs cours
Shared letters: corsu. Private to "courges": eg. Private to "cours": -.
"courges" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "cours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "courges" for "cours" ever safe?
Which is more common, "courges" or "cours"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "courges" and "cours" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "courges" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #167,873 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "courges" and "cours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courais 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 #167,873 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.