Which to use
“couru” is an adjective and “cousue” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,459
- “couru” frequency rank
- #39,728
- “cousue” frequency rank
- 49187
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | couru | cousue |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fréquenté. | Cigarette industrielle, déjà roulée, par opposition à celle que l’on roule soi-même. |
Where the eye mixes couru and cousue
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. couru runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against cousue's 6 (CVVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: couru vs cousue
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: couru is \ku.ʁy\ while cousue is \ku.zy\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49187, 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\. cousue is at rank #39,728, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ku.zy\.
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 49187, this pair ranks #172,733 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of couru vs cousue
Shared letters: cou. Private to "couru": r. Private to "cousue": es.
"couru" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "cousue" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "couru" and "cousue" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "couru" or "cousue"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "couru" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cousue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #172,733 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "couru" and "cousue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courus vs cousue". 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 #172,733 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.