Which to use
“course” and “coûts” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,059
- “course” frequency rank
- #3,450
- “coûts” frequency rank
- 4509
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | course | coûts |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de courir, mouvement de celui qui court. | Pluriel de coût. |
Where the eye mixes course and coûts
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between course and coûts
A purely visual mix-up. course (\kuʁs\) and coûts (\ku\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4509, 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\. coûts is at rank #3,450, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ku\.
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 4509, this pair ranks #431,420 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of course vs coûts
Shared letters: cos. Private to "course": eru. Private to "coûts": tû.
"course" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "coûts" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- course ← ccourse · coruse · coures · courrse · coursse · cousre · cuorse · ocurse
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "course" and "coûts" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "course" or "coûts" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "course" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "coûts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #431,420 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "course" and "coûts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coupa vs coûts". 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 #431,420 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.