cruevsCteConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#9,300
“crue” frequency rank
#42,264
“Cte” frequency rank
51564
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crue Cte
Definition Augmentation temporaire et généralement rapide du débit ou du niveau d’un cours d’eau, liée aux précipitations, à la fonte des neiges ou à d’autres apports. Comte.

Where the eye mixes crue and Cte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. crue runs 4 letters (CCVV) against Cte's 3 (CCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
crue
3 ch
Cte

Why the eye confuses crue with Cte

A purely visual mix-up. crue (\kʁy\) and Cte (\kɔ̃t\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51564, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crue is recorded at frequency rank #9,300, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁy\. Cte is at rank #42,264, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃t\.

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 51564, this pair ranks #154,077 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of crue vs Cte

Shared letters: ce. Private to "crue": ru. Private to "Cte": t.

"crue" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "Cte" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crue ← ccrue · creu · crrue · rcue

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "crue" for "Cte" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kʁy\ versus \kɔ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "crue" or "Cte"?
"crue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,300 in our French list, against #42,264 for "Cte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "crue" and "Cte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "crue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Cte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #154,077 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crue" and "Cte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs Cte". 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 #154,077 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