coupvscrutWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#226
“coup” frequency rank
#30,968
“crut” frequency rank
31194
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coup crut
Definition Impression que fait un corps sur un autre en le frappant. Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de croire.

Where the eye mixes coup and crut

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
coup
4 ch
crut

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: coup is \ku\ while crut is \kʁy\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31194, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coup is recorded at frequency rank #226, classified as anoun, pronounced \ku\. crut is at rank #30,968, tagged as averb, pronounced \kʁy\.

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 31194, this pair ranks #305,382 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of coup vs crut

Shared letters: cu. Private to "coup": op. Private to "crut": rt.

"coup" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "crut" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coupccoup · copu · coupp · cuop · ocup
  • crutccrut · crrut · crtu · crutt · curt · rcut

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "coup" and "crut" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "coup" is a noun and "crut" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "coup" or "crut"?
"coup" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #226 in our French list, against #30,968 for "crut". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "coup" and "crut". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "coup" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #305,382 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coup" and "crut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "count vs crut". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list