cartevscauseTell them apart

Which to use

“carte” and “cause” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#35,688
“carte” frequency rank
#27,663
“cause” frequency rank
63351
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carte cause
Definition Zettel, Karton Grund, Ursache, Anlass

Where the eye mixes carte and cause

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
carte
5 ch
cause

Visual trap between carte and cause

A purely visual mix-up. carte ([kaʁt]) and cause ([koz]) 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 63351, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

carte is recorded at frequency rank #35,688, classified as anoun, pronounced [kaʁt]. cause is at rank #27,663, tagged as anoun, pronounced [koz].

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 63351, this pair ranks #679,770 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of carte vs cause

Shared letters: ace. Private to "carte": rt. Private to "cause": su.

"carte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cause" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • carteacrte · caret · carrte · cartte · catre · ccarte · crate
  • causeacuse · casue · caues · causse · ccause · cuase

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "carte" for "cause" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([kaʁt] versus [koz]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "carte" vs "cause" - which ranks higher?
"cause" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,663 in our German list, against #35,688 for "carte". 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 "carte" and "cause" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "carte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cause" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #679,770 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "carte" and "cause" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carr vs carte". 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 #679,770 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list