choquervscoquesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#14,222
“choquer” frequency rank
#16,585
“coques” frequency rank
30807
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature choquer coques
Definition Donner un choc, heurter. Pluriel de coque.

Where the eye mixes choquer and coques

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
choquer
6 ch
coques

Visual trap between choquer and coques

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: choquer is \ʃɔ.ke\ while coques is \kɔk\. 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 30807, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

choquer is recorded at frequency rank #14,222, classified as averb, pronounced \ʃɔ.ke\. coques is at rank #16,585, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔk\.

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 30807, this pair ranks #307,862 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of choquer vs coques

Shared letters: ceoqu. Private to "choquer": hr. Private to "coques": s.

"choquer" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC  ·  "coques" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • choquercchoquer · chhoquer · choqeur · choqquer · choquerr · choqure · chouqer · chqouer
  • coquesccoques · coqeus · coqques · coquess · coquse · couqes · cqoues · ocques

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "choquer" and "coques" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "choquer" is a verb and "coques" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "choquer" or "coques"?
"choquer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,222 in our French list, against #16,585 for "coques". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "choquer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #307,862 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "choquer" and "coques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "codés vs coques". 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 #307,862 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