cevscruWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ce is a determiner, cru is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ce” is a determiner and “cru” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25
“ce” frequency rank
#1,326
“cru” frequency rank
1351
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ce cru
Definition Déterminant utilisé pour mettre en évidence une chose ou une personne dont on a la représentation devant soi. Lorsque l’objet est en nombre multiple ou lorsqu’on veut appuyer encore plus sur ce qu’on veut montrer, on rajoute -ci ou -là (selon la distance) après le nom. Qui n’est pas cuit.

Where the eye mixes ce and cru

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch
ce
3 ch
cru

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ce is \sə\ while cru is \kʁy\. 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 (determiner vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1351, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ce is recorded at frequency rank #25, classified as adet, pronounced \sə\. cru is at rank #1,326, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kʁy\.

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 1351, this pair ranks #438,216 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ce vs cru

Shared letters: c. Private to "ce": e. Private to "cru": ru.

"ce" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "cru" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ce" and "cru" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ce" is a determiner and "cru" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ce" or "cru"?
"ce" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25 in our French list, against #1,326 for "cru". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "ce" and "cru". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ce" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cru" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #438,216 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ce" and "cru" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciro vs cru". Nearby pair

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