Which to use
“cachée” is an adjective and “captée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,282
- “cachée” frequency rank
- #39,691
- “captée” frequency rank
- 46973
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cachée | captée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de caché. | Participe passé féminin singulier du verbe capter. |
Where the eye mixes cachée and captée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cachée and captée follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses cachée with captée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cachée is \ka.ʃe\ while captée is \kap.te\. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46973, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cachée is recorded at frequency rank #7,282, classified as anadj, pronounced \ka.ʃe\. captée is at rank #39,691, tagged as averb, pronounced \kap.te\.
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 46973, this pair ranks #190,594 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cachée vs captée
Shared letters: aceé. Private to "cachée": h. Private to "captée": pt.
"cachée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "captée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cachée" for "captée" ever safe?
Which is more common, "cachée" or "captée"?
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 "cachée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "captée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #190,594 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cachée" and "captée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "captée vs cryptée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #190,594 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.