Cré vs cru, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“Cré” is a name and “cru” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,203
“Cré” frequency rank: #1,326
“cru” frequency rank: 41529
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	Cré	cru
Definition	Ancien nom de la commune française Cré-sur-Loir.	Qui n’est pas cuit.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set Cré and cru apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

Cré

3 ch

cru

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Cré is \kʁe\ while cru is \kʁy\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - é in “Cré” becomes u in “cru”, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41529, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Cré is recorded at frequency rank #40,203, classified as aname, pronounced \kʁe\. cru is at rank #1,326, tagged as anadj, 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 41529, this pair ranks #232,419 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Cré vs cru

Shared letters: cr. Private to "Cré": é. Private to "cru": u.

"Cré" · 3 letters · shape CCV · "cru" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequency comparison

Cré#40,203

cru#1,326

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Cré" and "cru" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Cré" is a name and "cru" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "Cré" or "cru"?

"cru" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,326 in our French list, against #40,203 for "Cré". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering Cré vs cru

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a name, it's “Cré”; for an adjective, it's “cru”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “Cré” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable