cocardevscocasseWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: cocarde is a noun, cocasse is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cocarde” is a noun and “cocasse” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,987
“cocarde” frequency rank
#32,747
“cocasse” frequency rank
81734
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cocarde cocasse
Definition Insigne en étoffe ou en métal qui était porté principalement à la coiffure et surtout par les soldats. Qui est d’une drôlerie un peu bizarre, voire ridicule.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set cocarde and cocasse apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
cocarde
7 ch
cocasse

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cocarde is \kɔ.kaʁd\ while cocasse is \kɔ.kas\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81734, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cocarde is recorded at frequency rank #48,987, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.kaʁd\. cocasse is at rank #32,747, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ.kas\.

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 81734, this pair ranks #18,135 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cocarde vs cocasse

Shared letters: aceo. Private to "cocarde": dr. Private to "cocasse": s.

"cocarde" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "cocasse" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cocardeccoarde · ccocarde · coacrde · cocadre · cocardde · cocared · cocarrde · coccarde
  • cocasseccoasse · ccocasse · coacsse · cocase · cocases · coccasse · cocsase · occasse

Frequency comparison

cocarde#48,987
cocasse#32,747

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cocarde" and "cocasse" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cocarde" is a noun and "cocasse" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cocarde" or "cocasse"?
"cocasse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,747 in our French list, against #48,987 for "cocarde". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering cocarde vs cocasse

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “cocarde”; for an adjective, it's “cocasse”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “cocarde” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list