Which to use
“cab” is a noun and “ces” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,504
- “cab” frequency rank
- #74
- “ces” frequency rank
- 22578
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cab | ces |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Taxi britannique. | Pluriel de ce et cette. |
Where the eye mixes cab and ces
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Why the eye confuses cab with ces
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cab is \kab\ while ces is \se\. 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 determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22578, 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\. ces is at rank #74, tagged as adet, pronounced \se\.
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 22578, this pair ranks #357,217 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cab vs ces
Shared letters: c. Private to "cab": ab. Private to "ces": es.
"cab" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "ces" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cab" for "ces" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "cab" or "ces" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cab" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ces" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #357,217 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cab" and "ces" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cab vs CCE". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #357,217 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.