cabanevscobayeTell them apart

Which to use

“cabane” and “cobaye” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,442
“cabane” frequency rank
#30,099
“cobaye” frequency rank
39541
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cabane cobaye
Definition Petite maison grossièrement construite. Petit mammifère appelé aussi cochon d’Inde, rongeur d’origine sud-américaine.

Where the eye mixes cabane and cobaye

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cabane (CVCVCV) and cobaye (CVCVVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
cabane
6 ch
cobaye

Look-alike desk: cabane vs cobaye

A purely visual mix-up. cabane (\ka.ban\) and cobaye (\kɔ.baj\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39541, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cabane is recorded at frequency rank #9,442, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.ban\. cobaye is at rank #30,099, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.baj\.

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 39541, this pair ranks #247,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cabane vs cobaye

Shared letters: abce. Private to "cabane": n. Private to "cobaye": oy.

"cabane" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "cobaye" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cabane ← acbane · caabne · cabaen · cabanne · cabbane · cabnae · cbaane · ccabane
  • cobaye ← cboaye · ccobaye · coabye · cobaey · cobayye · cobbaye · cobyae · ocbaye

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cabane" and "cobaye" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ka.ban\ versus \kɔ.baj\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cabane" or "cobaye"?
"cabane" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,442 in our French list, against #30,099 for "cobaye". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cabane" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cobaye" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #247,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cabane" and "cobaye" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Cobain vs cobaye". 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 #247,194 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