ceuxvscrueConfusable pair

Quick tell: ceux is a pronoun, crue is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ceux” is a pronoun and “crue” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#175
“ceux” frequency rank
#9,300
“crue” frequency rank
9475
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ceux crue
Definition Masculin pluriel de celui. Augmentation temporaire et généralement rapide du débit ou du niveau d’un cours d’eau, liée aux précipitations, à la fonte des neiges ou à d’autres apports.

Where the eye mixes ceux and crue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
ceux
4 ch
crue

Visual trap between ceux and crue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ceux is \sø\ while crue is \kʁy\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9475, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ceux is recorded at frequency rank #175, classified as apron, pronounced \sø\. crue is at rank #9,300, tagged as anoun, 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 9475, this pair ranks #416,505 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ceux vs crue

Shared letters: ceu. Private to "ceux": x. Private to "crue": r.

"ceux" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "crue" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ceuxcceux · ceuxx · cexu · cuex · ecux
  • crueccrue · creu · crrue · rcue

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ceux" and "crue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ceux" is a pronoun and "crue" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ceux" vs "crue" - which ranks higher?
"ceux" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #175 in our French list, against #9,300 for "crue". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ceux" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #416,505 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ceux" and "crue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs crue". 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 #416,505 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