crauvscrewWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#44,959
“crau” frequency rank
#20,685
“crew” frequency rank
65644
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crau crew
Definition Plaine semée de pierres et de galets arrondis, couverte d’une steppe propice aux activités pastorales. Groupe.

Where the eye mixes crau and crew

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. crau (CCVV) and crew (CCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
crau
4 ch
crew

Look-alike desk: crau vs crew

A purely visual mix-up. crau (\kʁo\) and crew (\kʁu\) 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 65644, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crau is recorded at frequency rank #44,959, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁo\. crew is at rank #20,685, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁu\.

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 65644, this pair ranks #71,422 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of crau vs crew

Shared letters: cr. Private to "crau": au. Private to "crew": ew.

"crau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "crew" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crau ← caru · ccrau · crrau · crua · rcau
  • crew ← ccrew · cerw · creww · crrew · crwe · rcew

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "crau" and "crew" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kʁo\ versus \kʁu\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "crau" vs "crew" - which ranks higher?
"crew" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,685 in our French list, against #44,959 for "crau". 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 "crau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crew" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,422 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crau" and "crew" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chah vs crau". 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 #71,422 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