cognévsCPGETell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#27,008
“cogné” frequency rank
#49,006
“CPGE” frequency rank
76014
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cogné CPGE
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe cogner. Filière d'enseignement supérieur, qui prépare en deux ou trois ans après le baccalauréat aux concours d’admission de certaines écoles d’ingénieur ou de commerce.

Where the eye mixes cogné and CPGE

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cogné runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against CPGE's 4 (CCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
cogné
4 ch
CPGE

Why the eye confuses cogné with CPGE

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cogné is \kɔ.ɲe\ while CPGE is \se.pe.ʒe.ø\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76014, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cogné is recorded at frequency rank #27,008, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ.ɲe\. CPGE is at rank #49,006, tagged as anoun, pronounced \se.pe.ʒe.ø\.

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 76014, this pair ranks #32,346 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cogné vs CPGE

Shared letters: cg. Private to "cogné": noé. Private to "CPGE": ep.

"cogné" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "CPGE" · 4 letters · shape CCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • CPGE ← ccpge · cgpe · cpeg · cpgge · cppge · pcge

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cogné" and "CPGE" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cogné" is a verb and "CPGE" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cogné" vs "CPGE" - which ranks higher?
"cogné" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,008 in our French list, against #49,006 for "CPGE". 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 "cogné" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "CPGE" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #32,346 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cogné" and "CPGE" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs CPGE". 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 #32,346 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