cochevscoûteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#24,154
“coche” frequency rank
#2,915
“coûte” frequency rank
27069
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coche coûte
Definition Ancien chariot couvert dont le corps n’était pas suspendu et dans lequel on voyageait. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de coûter.

Where the eye mixes coche and coûte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
coche
5 ch
coûte

Look-alike desk: coche vs coûte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: coche is \kɔʃ\ while coûte is \kut\. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27069, 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\. coûte is at rank #2,915, tagged as averb, pronounced \kut\.

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 27069, this pair ranks #331,264 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of coche vs coûte

Shared letters: ceo. Private to "coche": h. Private to "coûte": .

"coche" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "coûte" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cocheccoche · ccohe · cocche · coceh · cochhe · cohce · ocche

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "coche" for "coûte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "coche" is a noun and "coûte" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "coche" vs "coûte" - which ranks higher?
"coûte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,915 in our French list, against #24,154 for "coche". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "coche" and "coûte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "coche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coûte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #331,264 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coche" and "coûte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coche vs conde". 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 #331,264 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