catrevscauseWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#49,500
“catre” frequency rank
#15,559
“cause” frequency rank
65059
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature catre cause
Definition Cama plegable con armazón de tijera. Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de subjuntivo de causar.

Where the eye mixes catre and cause

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

5 ch
catre
5 ch
cause

Why the eye confuses catre with cause

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: catre is [ˈkat̪ɾe] while cause is [ˈkawse]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65059, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

catre is recorded at frequency rank #49,500, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkat̪ɾe]. cause is at rank #15,559, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈkawse].

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 65059, this pair ranks #43,750 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of catre vs cause

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

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • catreactre · carte · cater · catrre · cattre · ccatre · ctare
  • causeacuse · casue · caues · causse · ccause · cuase

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "catre" and "cause" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "catre" is a noun and "cause" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "catre" or "cause" show up more?
"cause" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,559 in our Spanish list, against #49,500 for "catre". 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 "catre" and "cause" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "catre" 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 #43,750 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "catre" and "cause" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cart vs catre". 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 #43,750 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