Which to use
“courtes” is an adjective and “coûte” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,284
- “courtes” frequency rank
- #2,915
- “coûte” frequency rank
- 9199
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | courtes | coûte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin pluriel de court. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de coûter. |
Where the eye mixes courtes and coûte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between courtes and coûte
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: courtes is \kuʁt\ while coûte is \kut\. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9199, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
courtes is recorded at frequency rank #6,284, classified as anadj, pronounced \kuʁt\. coûte is at rank #2,915, tagged as averb, pronounced \kut\.
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 9199, this pair ranks #417,470 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of courtes vs coûte
Shared letters: ceot. Private to "courtes": rsu. Private to "coûte": û.
"courtes" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "coûte" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- courtes ← ccourtes · corutes · courets · courrtes · courtess · courtse · courttes · coutres
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "courtes" and "coûte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "courtes" or "coûte" 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 "courtes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "coûte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #417,470 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "courtes" and "coûte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courges vs courtes". 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 #417,470 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.