coûtsvsCROUSWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“coûts” and “CROUS” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#3,450
“coûts” frequency rank
#23,502
“CROUS” frequency rank
26952
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coûts CROUS
Definition Pluriel de coût. Organisme chargé des œuvres sociales, de l’hébergement et de la restauration des étudiants.

Where the eye mixes coûts and CROUS

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
coûts
5 ch
CROUS

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. coûts (\ku\) and CROUS (\kʁus\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26952, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coûts is recorded at frequency rank #3,450, classified as anoun, pronounced \ku\. CROUS is at rank #23,502, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁus\.

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 26952, this pair ranks #331,852 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of coûts vs CROUS

Shared letters: cos. Private to "coûts": . Private to "CROUS": ru.

"coûts" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "CROUS" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • CROUSccrous · crosu · crouss · crrous · cruos · rcous

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "coûts" and "CROUS" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ku\ versus \kʁus\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "coûts" or "CROUS"?
"coûts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,450 in our French list, against #23,502 for "CROUS". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "coûts" and "CROUS". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "coûts" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "CROUS" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #331,852 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coûts" and "CROUS" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "croco vs CROUS". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list