coachesvscrèchesTell them apart

Which to use

“coaches” and “crèches” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#49,560
“coaches” frequency rank
#20,686
“crèches” frequency rank
70246
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coaches crèches
Definition Pluriel de coach. Pluriel de crèche.

Where the eye mixes coaches and crèches

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. coaches (CVVCCVC) and crèches (CCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
coaches
7 ch
crèches

Visual trap between coaches and crèches

A purely visual mix-up. coaches (\kɔtʃ\) and crèches (\kʁɛʃ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70246, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coaches is recorded at frequency rank #49,560, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔtʃ\. crèches is at rank #20,686, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁɛʃ\.

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 70246, this pair ranks #52,089 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of coaches vs crèches

Shared letters: cehs. Private to "coaches": ao. Private to "crèches": rè.

"coaches" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "crèches" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coaches ← caoches · ccoaches · coacches · coacehs · coachess · coachhes · coachse · coahces

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "coaches" and "crèches" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kɔtʃ\ versus \kʁɛʃ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "coaches" or "crèches"?
"crèches" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,686 in our French list, against #49,560 for "coaches". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "coaches" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crèches" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,089 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coaches" and "crèches" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coaches vs cochet". 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 #52,089 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