cochervsCochinWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: cocher is a adjective, Cochin is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cocher” is an adjective and “Cochin” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,836
“cocher” frequency rank
#34,939
“Cochin” frequency rank
51775
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cocher Cochin
Definition Qui permet le passage des véhicules. Nom de famille.

Where the eye mixes cocher and Cochin

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cocher and Cochin follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
cocher
6 ch
Cochin

Visual trap between cocher and Cochin

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cocher is \kɔ.ʃe\ while Cochin is \kɔ.ʃɛ̃\. 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 (adjective vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51775, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cocher is recorded at frequency rank #16,836, classified as anadj, pronounced \kɔ.ʃe\. Cochin is at rank #34,939, tagged as aname, pronounced \kɔ.ʃɛ̃\.

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 51775, this pair ranks #152,573 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cocher vs Cochin

Shared letters: cho. Private to "cocher": er. Private to "Cochin": in.

"cocher" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Cochin" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cocherccocher · ccoher · coccher · cocehr · cocherr · cochher · cochre · cohcer
  • Cochinccochin · ccohin · cocchin · cochhin · cochinn · cochni · cocihn · cohcin

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cocher" and "Cochin" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cocher" is an adjective and "Cochin" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cocher" vs "Cochin" - which ranks higher?
"cocher" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,836 in our French list, against #34,939 for "Cochin". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cocher" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Cochin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #152,573 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cocher" and "Cochin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cocaine vs Cochin". 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 #152,573 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