crewvscrinWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#20,685
“crew” frequency rank
#42,257
“crin” frequency rank
62942
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crew crin
Definition Groupe. Poil long et rude qui pousse au cou, à la queue et aux extrémités inférieures des membres de certains animaux et spécialement des chevaux.

Where the spellings diverge

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

4 ch
crew
4 ch
crin

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. crew (\kʁu\) and crin (\kʁɛ̃\) 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 62942, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crew is recorded at frequency rank #20,685, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁu\. crin is at rank #42,257, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁɛ̃\.

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 62942, this pair ranks #84,431 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of crew vs crin

Shared letters: cr. Private to "crew": ew. Private to "crin": in.

"crew" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "crin" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crewccrew · cerw · creww · crrew · crwe · rcew
  • crinccrin · cirn · crinn · crni · crrin · rcin

Frequency comparison

crew#20,685
crin#42,257

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "crew" and "crin" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kʁu\ versus \kʁɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "crew" or "crin"?
"crew" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,685 in our French list, against #42,257 for "crin". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering crew vs crin

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “crew” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list