cransvscrashTell them apart

Which to use

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

#41,202
“crans” frequency rank
#7,044
“crash” frequency rank
48246
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crans crash
Definition Pluriel de cran. Atterrissage très brutal d’un avion le train rentré.

Where the eye mixes crans and crash

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. crans and crash follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
crans
5 ch
crash

Why the eye confuses crans with crash

A purely visual mix-up. crans (\kʁɑ̃\) and crash (\kʁaʃ\) 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 48246, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crans is recorded at frequency rank #41,202, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁɑ̃\. crash is at rank #7,044, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁaʃ\.

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 48246, this pair ranks #180,449 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of crans vs crash

Shared letters: acrs. Private to "crans": n. Private to "crash": h.

"crans" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "crash" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crans ← carns · ccrans · cranns · cranss · crasn · crnas · crrans · rcans
  • crash ← carsh · ccrash · crahs · crashh · crassh · crrash · crsah · rcash

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "crans" and "crash" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kʁɑ̃\ versus \kʁaʃ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "crans" or "crash" show up more?
"crash" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,044 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "crans" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crash" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #180,449 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crans" and "crash" 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 #180,449 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