chevscruTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#10,657
“che” frequency rank
#1,326
“cru” frequency rank
11983
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature che cru
Definition Variante de ce. Qui n’est pas cuit.

Letter map: che vs cru

Shared letters muted; letters that set che and cru apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
che
3 ch
cru

Part-of-speech tell for che / cru

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: che is apronoun and cruanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11983, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

che is recorded at frequency rank #10,657, classified as apron. 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 11983, this pair ranks #407,023 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of che vs cru

Shared letters: c. Private to "che": eh. Private to "cru": ru.

"che" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "cru" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "che" and "cru" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "che" is a pronoun and "cru" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "che" or "cru" show up more?
"cru" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,326 in our French list, against #10,657 for "che". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "che" vs "cru" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "che" 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 #407,023 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "che" and "cru" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs che". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #407,023 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