Which to use
“couru” is an adjective and “courut” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,459
- “couru” frequency rank
- #42,809
- “courut” frequency rank
- 52268
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | couru | courut |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fréquenté. | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de courir. |
Same sound, different letters: couru vs courut
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - couru / courut
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: couru and courut carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ku.ʁy\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “couru” sits inside “courut”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52268, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
couru is recorded at frequency rank #9,459, classified as anadj, pronounced \ku.ʁy\. courut is at rank #42,809, tagged as averb, pronounced \ku.ʁy\.
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 52268, this pair ranks #148,889 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of couru vs courut
Shared letters: coru. Private to "couru": -. Private to "courut": t.
"couru" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "courut" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "couru" and "courut" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "couru" or "courut" show up more?
Useful next steps
"couru" and "courut" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "couru" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "courut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #148,889 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "couru" and "courut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courra vs courut". 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 #148,889 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.