cabvsceWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: cab is a noun, ce is a determiner, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cab” is a noun and “ce” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,504
“cab” frequency rank
#25
“ce” frequency rank
22529
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cab ce
Definition Taxi britannique. Déterminant utilisé pour mettre en évidence une chose ou une personne dont on a la représentation devant soi. Lorsque l’objet est en nombre multiple ou lorsqu’on veut appuyer encore plus sur ce qu’on veut montrer, on rajoute -ci ou -là (selon la distance) après le nom.

Where the eye mixes cab and ce

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
cab
2 ch
ce

Look-alike desk: cab vs ce

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cab is \kab\ while ce is \sə\. 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 determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22529, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cab is recorded at frequency rank #22,504, classified as anoun, pronounced \kab\. ce is at rank #25, tagged as adet, pronounced \sə\.

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 22529, this pair ranks #357,502 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cab vs ce

Shared letters: c. Private to "cab": ab. Private to "ce": e.

"cab" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "ce" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cab" and "ce" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cab" is a noun and "ce" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cab" or "ce"?
"ce" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25 in our French list, against #22,504 for "cab". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "cab" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ce" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #357,502 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cab" and "ce" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cab vs CCE". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #357,502 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list