cavschaiTell them apart

Quick tell: ca is a intj, chai is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ca” is an intj and “chai” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,399
“ca” frequency rank
#43,454
“chai” frequency rank
47853
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ca chai
Definition Denota incredulidad o negación. Bodega, cava

Where the eye mixes ca and chai

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

2 ch
ca
4 ch
chai

Look-alike desk: ca vs chai

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ca is [ˈka] while chai is /ʃɛ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47853, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ca is recorded at frequency rank #4,399, classified as anintj, pronounced [ˈka]. chai is at rank #43,454, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ʃɛ/.

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 47853, this pair ranks #117,745 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ca vs chai

Shared letters: ac. Private to "ca": -. Private to "chai": hi.

"ca" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "chai" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chaicahi · cchai · chhai · chia · hcai

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ca" for "chai" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ca" is an intj and "chai" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "ca" or "chai" show up more?
"ca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,399 in our Spanish list, against #43,454 for "chai". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chai" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #117,745 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ca" and "chai" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chai vs chop". 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 #117,745 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list