cochevscrucheWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#24,154
“coche” frequency rank
#27,391
“cruche” frequency rank
51545
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coche cruche
Definition Ancien chariot couvert dont le corps n’était pas suspendu et dans lequel on voyageait. Vase de terre ou de grès, à anse, qui a ordinairement la panse large et le col étroit.

Where the eye mixes coche and cruche

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. coche runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against cruche's 6 (CCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
coche
6 ch
cruche

Why the eye confuses coche with cruche

A purely visual mix-up. coche (\kɔʃ\) and cruche (\kʁyʃ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51545, 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\. cruche is at rank #27,391, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁyʃ\.

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 51545, this pair ranks #154,207 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of coche vs cruche

Shared letters: ceh. Private to "coche": o. Private to "cruche": ru.

"coche" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cruche" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coche ← ccoche · ccohe · cocche · coceh · cochhe · cohce · ocche
  • cruche ← ccruche · crcuhe · crruche · crucche · cruceh · cruchhe · cruhce · curche

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "coche" and "cruche" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kɔʃ\ versus \kʁyʃ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "coche" or "cruche"?
"coche" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,154 in our French list, against #27,391 for "cruche". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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 "cruche" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #154,207 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coche" and "cruche" 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 #154,207 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