coquesvscoquinWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#16,585
“coques” frequency rank
#14,892
“coquin” frequency rank
31477
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coques coquin
Definition Pluriel de coque. Celui qui a un caractère vil, qui est capable de friponneries, de vols, d’actions déshonnêtes.

Where the eye mixes coques and coquin

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
coques
6 ch
coquin

Why the eye confuses coques with coquin

A purely visual mix-up. coques (\kɔk\) and coquin (\kɔ.kɛ̃\) 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 31477, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coques is recorded at frequency rank #16,585, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔk\. coquin is at rank #14,892, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.kɛ̃\.

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 31477, this pair ranks #303,552 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of coques vs coquin

Shared letters: coqu. Private to "coques": es. Private to "coquin": in.

"coques" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "coquin" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coquesccoques · coqeus · coqques · coquess · coquse · couqes · cqoues · ocques
  • coquinccoquin · coqiun · coqquin · coquinn · coquni · couqin · cqouin · ocquin

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "coques" for "coquin" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɔk\ versus \kɔ.kɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "coques" vs "coquin" - which ranks higher?
"coquin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,892 in our French list, against #16,585 for "coques". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "coques" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coquin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #303,552 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coques" and "coquin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "codés vs coques". 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 #303,552 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