cachaitvscachantConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#15,582
“cachait” frequency rank
#19,228
“cachant” frequency rank
34810
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes cachait and cachant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. cachait (CVCCVVC) and cachant (CVCCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
cachait
7 ch
cachant

Look-alike desk: cachait vs cachant

A purely visual mix-up. cachait (\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 a single letter - i in “cachait” becomes n in “cachant”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34810, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cachait is recorded at frequency rank #15,582, 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 34810, this pair ranks #281,198 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cachait vs cachant

Shared letters: acht. Private to "cachait": i. Private to "cachant": n.

"cachait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "cachant" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cachait ← acchait · cacahit · cacchait · cachaitt · cachati · cachhait · cachiat · cahcait
  • cachant ← acchant · cacahnt · cacchant · cachannt · cachantt · cachatn · cachhant · cachnat

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cachait" for "cachant" ever safe?
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: "cachait" vs "cachant" - which ranks higher?
"cachait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,582 in our French list, against #19,228 for "cachant". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cachait" 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 #281,198 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cachait" 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 #281,198 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