knowvskohWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: know is a verb, koh is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“know” is a verb and “koh” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,241
“know” frequency rank
#21,984
“koh” frequency rank
33225
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature know koh
Definition (pour une personne, un endroit) Connaître. Eau.

Where the eye mixes know and koh

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
know
3 ch
koh

Why the eye confuses know with koh

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: know is \ˈnoʊ\ while koh is \ˈkɔh\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33225, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

know is recorded at frequency rank #11,241, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈnoʊ\. koh is at rank #21,984, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɔh\.

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 33225, this pair ranks #292,051 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of know vs koh

Shared letters: ko. Private to "know": nw. Private to "koh": h.

"know" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "koh" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • knowkknow · knnow · knoww · knwo · konw · nkow

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "know" and "koh" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "know" is a verb and "koh" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "know" or "koh"?
"know" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,241 in our French list, against #21,984 for "koh". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "know" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "koh" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #292,051 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "know" and "koh" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "koh vs ky". 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 #292,051 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