Which to use
“coûtent” is a verb and “couvent” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,137
- “coûtent” frequency rank
- #7,043
- “couvent” frequency rank
- 19180
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | coûtent | couvent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe coûter. | Maison dans laquelle des religieux ou des religieuses vivent en commun. |
Where the eye mixes coûtent and couvent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. coûtent and couvent follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses coûtent with couvent
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: coûtent is \kut\ while couvent is \ku.vɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19180, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
coûtent is recorded at frequency rank #12,137, classified as averb, pronounced \kut\. couvent is at rank #7,043, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ku.vɑ̃\.
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 19180, this pair ranks #374,570 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of coûtent vs couvent
Shared letters: cenot. Private to "coûtent": û. Private to "couvent": uv.
"coûtent" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC · "couvent" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- couvent ← ccouvent · couevnt · couvennt · couventt · couvetn · couvnet · couvvent · covuent
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "coûtent" and "couvent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "coûtent" vs "couvent" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "coûtent" and "couvent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "coûtent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "couvent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #374,570 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "coûtent" and "couvent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "count vs coûtent". 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 #374,570 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.