cassevscocasseWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: casse is a noun, cocasse is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“casse” is a noun and “cocasse” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,411
“casse” frequency rank
#32,747
“cocasse” frequency rank
35158
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature casse cocasse
Definition Boîte plate et découverte, composée de deux parties, le haut de casse (majuscules) et le bas de casse (minuscules), et divisée en petites cases pour chaque caractère. Qui est d’une drôlerie un peu bizarre, voire ridicule.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set casse and cocasse apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
casse
7 ch
cocasse

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: casse is \kɑs\ while cocasse is \kɔ.kas\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “casse” sits inside “cocasse”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35158, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

casse is recorded at frequency rank #2,411, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɑs\. cocasse is at rank #32,747, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ.kas\.

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 35158, this pair ranks #278,735 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of casse vs cocasse

Shared letters: aces. Private to "casse": -. Private to "cocasse": o.

"casse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cocasse" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • casseacsse · cases · ccasse · csase
  • cocasseccoasse · ccocasse · coacsse · cocase · cocases · coccasse · cocsase · occasse

Frequency comparison

casse#2,411
cocasse#32,747

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "casse" and "cocasse" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "casse" is a noun and "cocasse" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "casse" or "cocasse"?
"casse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,411 in our French list, against #32,747 for "cocasse". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering casse vs cocasse

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “casse”; for an adjective, it's “cocasse”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “casse” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list