casservscosseWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: casser is a verb, cosse is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“casser” is a verb and “cosse” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,388
“casser” frequency rank
#33,195
“cosse” frequency rank
36583
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature casser cosse
Definition Briser ; rompre. Enveloppe de la graine, gousse, écorce.

Where the eye mixes casser and cosse

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
casser
5 ch
cosse

Look-alike desk: casser vs cosse

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: casser is \ka.se\ while cosse is \kɔs\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36583, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

casser is recorded at frequency rank #3,388, classified as averb, pronounced \ka.se\. cosse is at rank #33,195, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔs\.

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 36583, this pair ranks #268,580 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of casser vs cosse

Shared letters: ces. Private to "casser": ar. Private to "cosse": o.

"casser" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "cosse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • casseracsser · casesr · casserr · cassre · ccasser · csaser
  • cosseccosse · cose · coses · csose · ocsse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "casser" and "cosse" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "casser" is a verb and "cosse" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "casser" or "cosse"?
"casser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,388 in our French list, against #33,195 for "cosse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "casser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cosse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #268,580 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "casser" and "cosse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conde vs cosse". 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 #268,580 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