Which to use
“cours” and “course” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #202
- “cours” frequency rank
- #1,059
- “course” frequency rank
- 1261
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cours | course |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mouvement d’écoulement naturel dans l’espace. → voir cours d’eau et … | Action de courir, mouvement de celui qui court. |
Where the eye mixes cours and course
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between cours and course
A purely visual mix-up. cours (\kuʁ\) and course (\kuʁs\) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “cours” sits inside “course”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1261, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cours is recorded at frequency rank #202, classified as anoun, pronounced \kuʁ\. course is at rank #1,059, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kuʁs\.
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 1261, this pair ranks #438,339 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cours vs course
Shared letters: corsu. Private to "cours": -. Private to "course": e.
"cours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "course" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cours" and "course" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "cours" or "course" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cours" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "course" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #438,339 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cours" and "course" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courges vs course". 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 #438,339 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.