accrochervsapprocherWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,188
“accrocher” frequency rank
#6,165
“approcher” frequency rank
14353
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature accrocher approcher
Definition Attacher, suspendre à un crochet, à un clou, à un portemanteau, etc. Mettre proche, mettre près.

Where the eye mixes accrocher and approcher

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. accrocher and approcher follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
accrocher
9 ch
approcher

Look-alike desk: accrocher vs approcher

A purely visual mix-up. accrocher (\a.kʁɔ.ʃe\) and approcher (\a.pʁɔ.ʃe\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14353, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

accrocher is recorded at frequency rank #8,188, classified as averb, pronounced \a.kʁɔ.ʃe\. approcher is at rank #6,165, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.pʁɔ.ʃe\.

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 14353, this pair ranks #397,056 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of accrocher vs approcher

Shared letters: acehor. Private to "accrocher": -. Private to "approcher": p.

"accrocher" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCCVC  ·  "approcher" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • accrocher ← accorcher · accrcoher · accroccher · accrocehr · accrocherr · accrochher · accrochre · accrohcer
  • approcher ← apporcher · apprcoher · approccher · approcehr · approcherr · approchher · approchre · approhcer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "accrocher" and "approcher" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\a.kʁɔ.ʃe\ versus \a.pʁɔ.ʃe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "accrocher" or "approcher" show up more?
"approcher" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,165 in our French list, against #8,188 for "accrocher". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "accrocher" and "approcher" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "accrocher" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "approcher" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #397,056 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "accrocher" and "approcher" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "accrocher vs accrocheur". 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 #397,056 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list