Which to use
“coques” and “côtes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,585
- “coques” frequency rank
- #3,395
- “côtes” frequency rank
- 19980
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | coques | côtes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de coque. | Pluriel de côte. |
Where the eye mixes coques and côtes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: coques vs côtes
A purely visual mix-up. coques (\kɔk\) and côtes (\kot\) 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 19980, 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\. côtes is at rank #3,395, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kot\.
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 19980, this pair ranks #370,537 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of coques vs côtes
Shared letters: ces. Private to "coques": oqu. Private to "côtes": tô.
"coques" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "côtes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- coques ← ccoques · coqeus · coqques · coquess · coquse · couqes · cqoues · ocques
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "coques" for "côtes" ever safe?
Frequency check: "coques" vs "côtes" - which ranks higher?
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 "coques" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "côtes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #370,537 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "coques" and "côtes" 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 #370,537 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.