campagnevscompagneWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#667
“campagne” frequency rank
#7,038
“compagne” frequency rank
7705
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature campagne compagne
Definition Plaine, pays plat et découvert, considérée surtout par rapport à sa culture, à ses productions. Celle qui partage le sort de quelqu’un.

Where the eye mixes campagne and compagne

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

8 ch
campagne
8 ch
compagne

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. campagne (\kɑ̃.paɲ\) and compagne (\kɔ̃.paɲ\) 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 a single letter - a in “campagne” becomes o in “compagne”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7705, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

campagne is recorded at frequency rank #667, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɑ̃.paɲ\. compagne is at rank #7,038, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.paɲ\.

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 7705, this pair ranks #422,379 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of campagne vs compagne

Shared letters: acegmnp. Private to "campagne": -. Private to "compagne": o.

"campagne" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "compagne" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • campagneacmpagne · camapgne · cammpagne · campagen · campaggne · campagnne · campange · campgane
  • compagneccompagne · cmopagne · comapgne · commpagne · compagen · compaggne · compagnne · compange

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "campagne" and "compagne" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kɑ̃.paɲ\ versus \kɔ̃.paɲ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "campagne" or "compagne"?
"campagne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #667 in our French list, against #7,038 for "compagne". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list