catrevscaveWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#49,500
“catre” frequency rank
#34,485
“cave” frequency rank
83985
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes catre and cave

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

5 ch
catre
4 ch
cave

Visual trap between catre and cave

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: catre is [ˈkat̪ɾe] while cave is [ˈkaβ̞e]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83985, 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]. cave is at rank #34,485, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈkaβ̞e].

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 83985, this pair ranks #7,526 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of catre vs cave

Shared letters: ace. Private to "catre": rt. Private to "cave": v.

"catre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cave" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • catreactre · carte · cater · catrre · cattre · ccatre · ctare
  • caveacve · caev · cavve · ccave · cvae

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "catre" and "cave" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "catre" is a noun and "cave" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "catre" or "cave"?
"cave" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,485 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "catre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cave" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #7,526 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "catre" and "cave" 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 #7,526 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