Which to use
“cares” is a verb and “cases” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,606
- “cares” frequency rank
- #965
- “cases” frequency rank
- 4571
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cares | cases |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | third-person singular simple present indicative of care | plural of case |
Where the eye mixes cares and cases
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cares is /kɛɹz/ while cases is /ˈkeɪsɪz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “cares” becomes s in “cases”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4571, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cares is recorded at frequency rank #3,606, classified as averb, pronounced /kɛɹz/. 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 4571, this pair ranks #518,464 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cares vs cases
Shared letters: aces. Private to "cares": r. Private to "cases": -.
"cares" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "cases" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC