cachéevscaptéeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: cachée is a adjective, captée is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

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 spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set cachée and captée apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
cachée
6 ch
captée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

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

Frequency comparison

cachée#7,282
captée#39,691

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cachée" and "captée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cachée" is an adjective and "captée" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cachée" or "captée"?
"cachée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,282 in our French list, against #39,691 for "captée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering cachée vs captée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “cachée”; for a verb, it's “captée”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “cachée” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list