Which to use
“cours” is a noun and “courts” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #202
- “cours” frequency rank
- #4,931
- “courts” frequency rank
- 5133
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cours | courts |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mouvement d’écoulement naturel dans l’espace. → voir cours d’eau et … | Masculin pluriel de court. |
Same sound, different letters: cours vs courts
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.
Homophone desk: cours vs courts
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: cours and courts carry the same recorded pronunciation, \kuʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5133, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cours is recorded at frequency rank #202, classified as anoun, pronounced \kuʁ\. courts is at rank #4,931, tagged as anadj, 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 5133, this pair ranks #429,808 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cours vs courts
Shared letters: corsu. Private to "cours": -. Private to "courts": t.
"cours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "courts" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cours" and "courts" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "cours" or "courts"?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "cours" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "courts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #429,808 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cours" and "courts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courges vs courts". 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 #429,808 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.