camevscasesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#294
“came” frequency rank
#965
“cases” frequency rank
1259
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature came cases
Definition simple past of come plural of case

Where the eye mixes came and cases

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

4 ch
came
5 ch
cases

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: came is /keɪm/ while cases is /ˈkeɪsɪz/. 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 1259, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

came is recorded at frequency rank #294, classified as averb, pronounced /keɪm/. cases is at rank #965, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkeɪsɪz/.

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 1259, this pair ranks #527,769 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of came vs cases

Shared letters: ace. Private to "came": m. Private to "cases": s.

"came" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cases" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • camecaem · camme · ccame · cmae
  • casesacses · caess · casess · casses · ccases · csaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "came" and "cases" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "came" is a verb and "cases" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "came" or "cases"?
"came" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #294 in our English list, against #965 for "cases". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list