Which to use
“cous” and “COV” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,734
- “cous” frequency rank
- #48,437
- “COV” frequency rank
- 87171
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cous | COV |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pierre à aiguiser utilisée par les faucheurs. | Composé organique volatil. |
Where the eye mixes cous and COV
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cous runs 4 letters (CVVC) against COV's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between cous and COV
A purely visual mix-up. cous (\kus\) and COV (\se o ve\) 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 87171, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cous is recorded at frequency rank #38,734, classified as anoun, pronounced \kus\. COV is at rank #48,437, tagged as anoun, pronounced \se o ve\.
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 87171, this pair ranks #8,662 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cous vs COV
Shared letters: co. Private to "cous": su. Private to "COV": v.
"cous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "COV" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- cous ← ccous · cosu · couss · cuos · ocus
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cous" for "COV" ever safe?
Frequency check: "cous" vs "COV" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "cous" and "COV" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cous" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "COV" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #8,662 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cous" and "COV" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs COV". 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 #8,662 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.