cachaientvscachantConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#35,413
“cachaient” frequency rank
#19,228
“cachant” frequency rank
54641
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cachaient cachant
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif imparfait du verbe cacher. Participe présent du verbe cacher.

Where the eye mixes cachaient and cachant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. cachaient runs 9 letters (CVCCVVVCC) against cachant's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
cachaient
7 ch
cachant

Why the eye confuses cachaient with cachant

A purely visual mix-up. cachaient (\ka.ʃɛ\) and cachant (\ka.ʃɑ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54641, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cachaient is recorded at frequency rank #35,413, classified as averb, pronounced \ka.ʃɛ\. cachant is at rank #19,228, tagged as averb, pronounced \ka.ʃɑ̃\.

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 54641, this pair ranks #132,642 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cachaient vs cachant

Shared letters: achnt. Private to "cachaient": ei. Private to "cachant": -.

"cachaient" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVVCC  ·  "cachant" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cachaient ← acchaient · cacahient · cacchaient · cachaeint · cachaiennt · cachaientt · cachaietn · cachainet
  • cachant ← acchant · cacahnt · cacchant · cachannt · cachantt · cachatn · cachhant · cachnat

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cachaient" and "cachant" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ka.ʃɛ\ versus \ka.ʃɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cachaient" vs "cachant" - which ranks higher?
"cachant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,228 in our French list, against #35,413 for "cachaient". 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 "cachaient" and "cachant" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cachaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cachant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #132,642 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cachaient" and "cachant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cachant vs crachant". 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 #132,642 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