CachanvscachezWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Cachan is a name, cachez is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Cachan” is a name and “cachez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,348
“Cachan” frequency rank
#26,283
“cachez” frequency rank
70631
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Cachan cachez
Definition Commune française, située dans le département du Val-de-Marne. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe cacher.

Where the eye mixes Cachan and cachez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Cachan
6 ch
cachez

Visual trap between Cachan and cachez

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Cachan is \ka.ʃɑ̃\ while cachez is \ka.ʃe\. 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 (name vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70631, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Cachan is recorded at frequency rank #44,348, classified as aname, pronounced \ka.ʃɑ̃\. cachez is at rank #26,283, tagged as averb, pronounced \ka.ʃe\.

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 70631, this pair ranks #50,651 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Cachan vs cachez

Shared letters: ach. Private to "Cachan": n. Private to "cachez": ez.

"Cachan" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "cachez" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Cachanacchan · cacahn · cacchan · cachann · cachhan · cachna · cahcan · ccachan
  • cachezacchez · cacchez · cacehz · cachezz · cachhez · cachze · cahcez · ccachez

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Cachan" and "cachez" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Cachan" is a name and "cachez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Cachan" or "cachez"?
"cachez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,283 in our French list, against #44,348 for "Cachan". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "Cachan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cachez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,651 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Cachan" and "cachez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Cachan 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 #50,651 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