casvschaiWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“cas” and “chai” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#19,656
“cas” frequency rank
#43,454
“chai” frequency rank
63110
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cas chai
Definition Caso. Bodega, cava

Where the eye mixes cas and chai

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cas runs 3 letters (CVC) against chai's 4 (CCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
cas
4 ch
chai

Visual trap between cas and chai

A purely visual mix-up. cas ([ˈkas]) and chai (/ʃɛ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63110, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cas is recorded at frequency rank #19,656, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkas]. 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 63110, this pair ranks #49,826 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cas vs chai

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cas": s. Private to "chai": hi.

"cas" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "chai" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chai ← cahi · cchai · chhai · chia · hcai

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cas" and "chai" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkas] versus /ʃɛ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cas" or "chai"?
"cas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,656 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cas" 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 #49,826 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cas" 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 #49,826 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