craintvscransWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#4,477
“craint” frequency rank
#41,202
“crans” frequency rank
45679
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature craint crans
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de craindre. Pluriel de cran.

Where the eye mixes craint and crans

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

6 ch
craint
5 ch
crans

Look-alike desk: craint vs crans

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: craint is \kʁɛ̃\ while crans is \kʁɑ̃\. 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 45679, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

craint is recorded at frequency rank #4,477, classified as averb, pronounced \kʁɛ̃\. crans is at rank #41,202, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁɑ̃\.

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 45679, this pair ranks #200,886 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of craint vs crans

Shared letters: acnr. Private to "craint": it. Private to "crans": s.

"craint" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC  ·  "crans" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • craintcarint · ccraint · crainnt · craintt · craitn · cranit · crraint · rcaint
  • cranscarns · ccrans · cranns · cranss · crasn · crnas · crrans · rcans

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "craint" and "crans" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "craint" is a verb and "crans" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "craint" or "crans" show up more?
"craint" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,477 in our French list, against #41,202 for "crans". 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 "craint" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crans" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #200,886 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "craint" and "crans" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCAS vs crans". 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 #200,886 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