The hydrides CeCoSiH(1.0) and CeCoGeH(1.0) which crystallize like the parent antiferromagnetic compounds CeCoSi and CeCoGe in the tetragonal CeFeSi-type structure, have been investigated by specific heat and thermoelectric power measurements and (1)H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). CeCoSiH(1.0) is an intermediate valence compound whereas CeCoGeH(1.0) can be considered as a nearly trivalent cerium compound. This behaviour is corroborated by the occurrence of a slight broadening of the (1)H NMR signal in the sequence [Formula: see text]. The band structure calculations performed on these hydrides reveal the existence of strong bonding Ce-H interaction, found to be larger in CeCoSiH(1.0) than in CeCoGeH(1.0).