coursevscoursierConfusable pair

Quick tell: course is a noun, coursier is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“course” is a noun and “coursier” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,059
“course” frequency rank
#31,906
“coursier” frequency rank
32965
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature course coursier
Definition Action de courir, mouvement de celui qui court. Qui concerne les courses, les achats dans les magasins.

Where the eye mixes course and coursier

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
course
8 ch
coursier

Look-alike desk: course vs coursier

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: course is \kuʁs\ while coursier is \kuʁ.sje\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32965, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

course is recorded at frequency rank #1,059, classified as anoun, pronounced \kuʁs\. coursier is at rank #31,906, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kuʁ.sje\.

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 32965, this pair ranks #293,780 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of course vs coursier

Shared letters: ceorsu. Private to "course": -. Private to "coursier": i.

"course" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "coursier" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • courseccourse · coruse · coures · courrse · coursse · cousre · cuorse · ocurse
  • coursierccoursier · corusier · couriser · courrsier · courseir · coursierr · coursire · courssier

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "course" for "coursier" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "course" is a noun and "coursier" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "course" or "coursier"?
"course" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,059 in our French list, against #31,906 for "coursier". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "course" and "coursier" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "course" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coursier" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #293,780 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "course" and "coursier" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courber vs coursier". 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 #293,780 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list