cachantvscrachentWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#19,228
“cachant” frequency rank
#30,117
“crachent” frequency rank
49345
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes cachant and crachent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. cachant runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against crachent's 8 (CCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
cachant
8 ch
crachent

Visual trap between cachant and crachent

A purely visual mix-up. cachant (\ka.ʃɑ̃\) and crachent (\kʁaʃ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49345, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cachant is recorded at frequency rank #19,228, classified as averb, pronounced \ka.ʃɑ̃\. crachent is at rank #30,117, tagged as averb, pronounced \kʁaʃ\.

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 49345, this pair ranks #171,452 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cachant vs crachent

Shared letters: achnt. Private to "cachant": -. Private to "crachent": er.

"cachant" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "crachent" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cachant ← acchant · cacahnt · cacchant · cachannt · cachantt · cachatn · cachhant · cachnat
  • crachent ← carchent · ccrachent · cracchent · cracehnt · crachennt · crachentt · crachetn · crachhent

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cachant" and "crachent" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ka.ʃɑ̃\ versus \kʁaʃ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cachant" vs "crachent" - which ranks higher?
"cachant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,228 in our French list, against #30,117 for "crachent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cachant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crachent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #171,452 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cachant" and "crachent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crachant vs crachent". 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 #171,452 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