Which to use
“Clèves” is a name and “crevée” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #39,221
- “Clèves” frequency rank
- #33,626
- “crevée” frequency rank
- 72847
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Clèves | crevée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ville d’Allemagne, située dans la Rhénanie-du-Nord-Westphalie. | Trouée, échancrure, déchirure. |
Where the eye mixes Clèves and crevée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Clèves (CCVCVC) and crevée (CCVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: Clèves vs crevée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Clèves is \klɛv\ while crevée is \kʁə.ve\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72847, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Clèves is recorded at frequency rank #39,221, classified as aname, pronounced \klɛv\. crevée is at rank #33,626, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁə.ve\.
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 72847, this pair ranks #42,565 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of Clèves vs crevée
Shared letters: cev. Private to "Clèves": lsè. Private to "crevée": ré.
"Clèves" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "crevée" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Clèves" for "crevée" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "Clèves" or "crevée" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "Clèves" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crevée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #42,565 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Clèves" and "crevée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clavel vs Clèves". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #42,565 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.