Which to use
“course” is a noun and “courte” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,059
- “course” frequency rank
- #2,468
- “courte” frequency rank
- 3527
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | course | courte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de courir, mouvement de celui qui court. | Féminin singulier de court. |
Where the eye mixes course and courte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: course vs courte
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: course is \kuʁs\ while courte is \kuʁt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - s in “course” becomes t in “courte”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3527, 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\. courte is at rank #2,468, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kuʁt\.
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 3527, this pair ranks #433,811 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of course vs courte
Shared letters: ceoru. Private to "course": s. Private to "courte": t.
"course" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "courte" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "course" for "courte" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "course" or "courte" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "course" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "courte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #433,811 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "course" and "courte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courges vs courte". 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 #433,811 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.