cochevscotteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#24,154
“coche” frequency rank
#43,365
“cotte” frequency rank
67519
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coche cotte
Definition Ancien chariot couvert dont le corps n’était pas suspendu et dans lequel on voyageait. Jupe.

Where the eye mixes coche and cotte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. coche and cotte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
coche
5 ch
cotte

Look-alike desk: coche vs cotte

A purely visual mix-up. coche (\kɔʃ\) and cotte (\kɔt\) 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 67519, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coche is recorded at frequency rank #24,154, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔʃ\. cotte is at rank #43,365, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔt\.

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 67519, this pair ranks #63,087 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of coche vs cotte

Shared letters: ceo. Private to "coche": h. Private to "cotte": t.

"coche" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cotte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coche ← ccoche · ccohe · cocche · coceh · cochhe · cohce · ocche
  • cotte ← ccotte · cotet · ctote · octte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "coche" and "cotte" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kɔʃ\ versus \kɔt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "coche" vs "cotte" - which ranks higher?
"coche" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,154 in our French list, against #43,365 for "cotte". 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 "coche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cotte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,087 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coche" and "cotte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Cosette vs cotte". 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 #63,087 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